Upgradephobia!

[Nifty Ubuntu]

On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 6:01 PM, NoOp <glgxg at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> On 10/30/2009 04:50 PM, David McNally wrote:
> ...
>> My Ubuntu computer now is currently the only computer that I have (at least
>> I'm not using windows anymore!), so I'm a bit more nervous, considering I've
>> never had a successful upgrade.
>>
>> Also, when I was reading the release notes for 9.10, I noticed that ext4 and
>> GRUB 2 won't be installed on an upgraded computer - only a fresh install.
>> Would there be any way of creating a fresh install, but with all of my
>> programs and files (and I do mean EVERYTHING: Virtualbox VMs, Wine programs,
>> game saves, Compiz settings, etc), while still having ext4 and GRUB 2?
>>
>> Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>
> What's the rush?
>
> Wait for at least 30 days (seriously) before upgrading if you only have
> one system -- unless of course you have a compelling technical reason to
> do so. By then many issues that always occur with any new release
> upgrade will/should have been sorted out.
>

Exactly -- what is the rush?

Step one is:
    backup your system in a way that you understand and
    can verify.  Do do you have a backup?  If not, stop thinking
    about an update and focus on your backup.

Step two:
    evaluate what an update to 9.10 gives you.
    On the surface a working ext3 does not need
    to be updated.    A working grub does not
    need to be updated.

Step three:
    review your backup -- will it be valid after an update?

Step four:
    establish a plan to update and if it still makes sense update.


It took me from 7:00 PM to 4:30AM to work through steps 1, 2, 3
and by 5:30 AM I was up and running with 9.10 on a clean install.
Then started a restore of my personal data to run while I got some Zzsss.

On this old laptop 9.10 runs better than any of the previous distro installs,
good stuff.

Thanks,
mitch