Erik Christiansen <dvalin@internode.on.net> writes:
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.
Ubuntu explicitly claims to support this. My experiences with 8.04 -> 10.04 were dismal compared to my experiences with Debian dist-upgrades; on most hosts I did, d-r-u crashed halfway through and left me to clean up the inconsistent state. (I'm afraid I don't remember the details.) Note that LTS->LTS is only supported when the .1 of the target release comes out. Also note (as always) that "5-years support" is supplied on a per-package basis, to a strict subset of their already marginal "main" section. Ref. the "supported" field in apt (not found in Debian). Also, since I'm on the subject, I'd like to alert people who haven't read the Wheezy release notes, that Debian won't commit to providing suppot for GUI browsers except for chromium and iceweasel.