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LINUX: In-place upgrade of Mint 17.0 Qiana to Mint 17.1 Rebecca

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40hz:
(I'm still waiting for 17.1 Xfce)
-Deozaan (January 07, 2015, 05:42 PM)
--- End quote ---

The Xfce & KDE 17.1 versions are now out. And the upgrade path is the same for all (i.e. Cinnamon/KDE/MATE/Xfce) versions. Yay! :)

Deozaan:
I'm not a fan of the upgrade process.

I did my due diligence, reading all about the update, release notes, new features, known issues, etc., before clicking that upgrade button. After doing the research, I decided I was aware of the potential risks and I didn't see anything in particular that would destroy my system, so I decided to go ahead with the upgrade.

So imagine my frustration when, after clicking upgrade, I was forced to click a link to open up the release notes in my browser before I could click the button to continue with the upgrade. "What is this? I already read this page." I closed the browser and clicked "Next" so I could upgrade to 17.1. After that I was forced to click a link to open up something else (known issues?) in my browser (which I'd already read) before I could click the button to continue with the upgrade.

Finally I was allowed to let the system install the upgrade.

But eventually I got a warning message that one of the packages failed to download, and asking me if I should cancel the upgrade or ignore the error and continue. I didn't want my system broken due to an unknown, vital package not being installed, so I cancelled the upgrade. It was only then that I was informed that the failed package was just some wallpapers.

So I tried the upgrade again. And I was forced to click the link to open up the release notes in my browser before clicking Next, and then I was forced to click the link to open up the other thing in my browser again before clicking Next. Then it started the download of the wallpapers again and they downloaded correctly and the upgrade installed and it suggested I reboot the computer to allow the changes to go into effect.

I'm glad that it works, but my experience with it was a bit frustrating and annoying, and could have been made so much easier if I wasn't forced to open my browser twice on my slow old netbook to read things I'd already read.

First world problems, eh? :D

TaoPhoenix:
Maybe not quite set & forget. Not yet anyway. But in Mint's case, this was a happy compromise between the usual "fresh" install hassle and the occasionally dicey "rolling update" approach.

Now let's see them do it three more times just so we know it's not luck. ;D
-40hz (January 07, 2015, 05:14 PM)
--- End quote ---

Now I know this example comes from Ubuntu and not mint, but Canonical has put out *eighteen* releases since I began eyeballing them from Dapper Drake. I do NOT have anything remotely approaching the energy to do fresh installs of all that. No, not even the LTS ones that pop up every x skip-versions. Plus, at least a couple of times I ended up with severe problems trying to go to certain new versions at different points of time.

So I really hope they get in-place updating working as the goal for 2020, because that's how I believe a core OS plus updates model should work, aka a very few super-longterm cores, then update it for tons of time, until finally you just one day flip it to a new core. I don't want to flip cores less than every ten years.

I glance at the features of all these releases, and not counting Canonical's disturbing habit where some of them are unstable, I won't do an install and lose that re-tweak time just because "we fine tuned the package manager and put in new copies of about five programs that you use".

Deozaan:
That's pretty much the mindset of Linux Mint. They warn you about updating, and tell you there is nothing wrong with staying at your current version if it's working for you. They say you should only upgrade if it fixes an issue you're having or provides some new functionality you need.

They'll probably update the "core" more often than every 10 years, but other than that, Mint pretty much exactly mirrors your opinion there.

40hz:
The LTS versions of Linux usually run for 3-5 years rather than ten.

That doesn't mean nothing in it's core or kernal won't be changed during that period. It just means that any changes will be fully supported for the duration of the release.

My day-to-day work machines all run long-term support versions for obvious reasons.

To me, the two good reasons for going to a newer release are: (a) security patches; (b) better hardware and driver support.

In the case of Mint, I stay more current than usual because I try to stay on top of Cinnamon. Not so much because I personally like it (and I do btw!) - but because it's the easiest and most productive way for a new user to get started using Nix on the desktop.

I can hand a copy of Mint Cinnamon to anybody with even a modicum of computer experience and not worry they'll be in over their head. I've even passed Mint Cinnamon off as a beta of a 'top secret' future Windows release, and had long time Windows users tell me how neat they thought it all was. You just can't do that with every distro out there. :up:

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