Ubuntu upgrades (was Re:"NVidia is great!" - Umm, no?)

[Christopher Browne]

On 9/3/07, Giles Orr <gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On 8/31/07, Evan Leibovitch <evan-ieNeDk6JonTYtjvyW6yDsg at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > > Which are you using, apt-get or aptitude?
> >
> > adept-updater, which is the recommended tool for Kubuntu.
>
> As Lennart says, Debian upgrades extremely well: I have a couple of
> systems several years old that I've upgraded repeatedly without major
> issues (a couple minor ones - generally very minor).

A BIG part of this is undoubtedly that Debian's release strategy has
involved doing in-place upgrades of both minor and major sorts for
*years* now.

Ubuntu kind of gets this "for free," as a result of deriving from Debian.

In contrast, the "upgrade strategy" for Red Hat derivatives has always
been, pretty much, to re-install, so the work has NOT gone into the
release processes to ensure that (for instance) libraries get upgraded
in a fashion that doesn't leave the distribution "hanging" half-way
through.

I don't think that's too likely to change any time soon - the
transition is a lot of effort.
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