On 07.06.13 12:13, Craig Sanders wrote:
On Thu, Jun 06, 2013 at 07:46:54PM +1000, Erik Christiansen wrote:
The ubuntu installer autodetects the partition with the most current OS, and proposes the older for the install. I might have to pay much closer attention during a Debian install.
why reinstall? seems to me as if that's missing most of the point of both debian and ubuntu.
'apt-get dist-upgrade' works better than re-installing - doesn't lose your existing configuration or require significant downtime (a few minutes to reboot to start using the updated kernel).
Yes, having to reinstall all the extra bits and pieces is a major part of the pain every three years, so dist-upgrade sounds attractive, if it is reliable now. But ISTR that it probably won't jump me from e.g. Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS to the new LTS. Things like having to blow away NetworkManager, to get networking to work, on each ubuntu installation, are also small irritations. If a dist-upgrade would respect its omission, then I could try an annual dist-upgrade. Switch back to debian, then try dist-upgrade every year or so, seems a good way forward, given your advice. ...
in my experience, you're much better off fixing the occasional minor problems or incompatibilities after an upgrade than you are trying to revert back to an earlier version.
When I buy a car, it should not require repairs in the first three years. There's so much else to spend time on, that unproductive distro futzing does not appeal any more.
plus, you get exciting new bugs to discover rather than boring old ones.
Hmmm, is it three decades spent fixing bugs in my own software which causes the entertainment value of bugs to be a much devalued currency here? I'm not admitting to getting slower, just more easily frustrated when time is taken from the tasks at hand. I'll give it a go. It can't all break on a minor upgrade. Erik -- Leibowitz's Rule: When hammering a nail, you will never hit your finger if you hold the hammer with both hands.