Best upgrade path?

[Liam Proven]

On Sat, 11 Jul 2020 at 20:48, rikona <rikona at sonic.net> wrote:

> That was exactly the kind of problem I was envisioning and worried
> about, especially since the KDE parts do not play well with the current
> Ubuntu.

I used to run side-by-side OSes and transition gradually. I no longer
do and haven't done for about 7-8y. I tend to find upgrades are
reliable and easy now. I tend to do initial evaluation of new distros
etc. in VMs.

> > Copy all your stuff, change ownership, and then run side by side until
> > you're happy, then remove the old OS and old home directory.
>
> This sounds very good! I'll try this approach.

Beware of programs that hard-code pathnames to stuff. E.g. VirtualBox
remembers my _old_ home directory and consistently tries to create VMs
in it, which fails. (This is on a Mac.)

> I'm also considering adding an iMac to the mix. We have 25,000+
> pix/vids and maintaining all that for the family, on multiple devices,
> using linux, has been a big chore for me. The Apple route looks pretty
> attractive for that kind of thing. Any comments/suggestions on that
> route also appreciated...

My home desktops are Macs these days: a mini with 10.13 and a Retina
iMac with 10.14. (I do not want the 64-bit-only 10.15.)

Enough said, really. After ~25y with Linux and ~32y with *nix in
general, I use macOS from preference. It is less hassle.

But I don't like Apple's modern keyboards or pointing devices, so I
use ~30y old Apple mechanical keyboards and generic mice on my Macs,
and I don't use their laptops at all. I use 2nd-hand Thinkpads running
Ubuntu with Unity.

If you don't use all the Apple proprietary apps, Macs interoperate
very well with Ubuntu. E.g. I use Waterfox, Chrome, Skype, Franz,
VirtualBox, LibreOffice, DropBox, Thunderbird... I barely use any of
the built-in Mac apps, and then, I point them at my Google account so
stuff syncs to my Android devices. So Apple Contacts and Calendar just
show my Google account.

I do use iTunes to listen to internet radio.

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