Ubuntu and its derivatives (Lubuntu, Xubuntu etc.) should really consider adding cross-distribution installation/upgrade feature in Ubiquity

[brendanperrine@gmail.com]

Yes people should back up their data anyway. Implementing this would be
quite complicated it seems to me.

On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 1:08 AM, Xen <list at xenhideout.nl> wrote:

> Βασίλης Κατσαρέλιας schreef op 02-02-2018 17:08:
>
> Anyway, I just want Ubiquity to feature a cross-distribution
>> upgrade/transfer feature. (e.g. upgrade from Ubuntu 14.04 to Lubuntu 16.04,
>> upgrade from Kubuntu 16.04 to Xubuntu 17.10)
>>
>
> Honestly this is more a place for an on-system upgrade mechanism as it
> already exists, rather than something that would, I think, place undue
> burden on Ubiquity.
>
> I think as it stands Ubiquity would need work on dealing with failure
> cases more elegantly before you introduced something that would invite more
> failure cases.
>
> What Colin says is correct about not formatting your root partition,
> although it might not be so clear to a user, because it is a rather
> "smallish" choice somewhere.
>
> What Ralph says is also correct; backing up user data (The contents of
> your own home directory) can hardly be considered "awful" in the full light
> of things.
>
> So if anything, also speaking as an outsider, this would need to be
> improved in a "do-full-upgrade" tool however it would be near impossible to
> cater to all cross-variant upgrade situations.
>
> So Βασίλης, I hope you realize that you would get a huge matrix of what
> needs to change where, ie.
>
>                    Kubuntu 16.04        Lubuntu 14.04
>
> Xubuntu 17.10            X                     X
>
> And that it would need a lot of work to separate everything.
>
>
>
>
> Βασίλης, do you really think that making a backup of your /home/user
> directory is not a lot simpler?
>
> I think what you are suggesting would be a task not even a commercial
> entity, or a fully commercial vendor would be happy in undertaking.
>
> Although technically feasible, in practice it would involve _first
> changing to your desired flavour_ and THEN upgrading.
>
> Or vice versa, but not all at the same time.
>
> Then the problem becomes simple: how do we change an existing system to a
> different flavour?
>
> I am not sure this is supported, but "cross-distribution upgrade" is
> clearly not the first goal.
>
> If, on the other hand, you just want to reinstall your system, then
> Colin's suggestion would suffice, but it is not so clear the installer
> would do that.
>
> So I think that in practice the only real enhancement that would be
> quickly needed would be to structure Ubiquity such that this option is
> evident to users.
>
> As to your upgrade, Βασίλης, I am happy you got it done.
>
> Regards,
>
>
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