Ubuntu

upgrade options for 14.04

Asked by Bruce MacAlister

I need advise. I have had 12.04 LTS for over a year. It was my first experience with Ubuntu so I did some messy things. I didn't know about PPAs so to get up to date versions of certain packages, I simply downloaded and installed them. Now I know I should use PPAs to keep things clean. I have lots of junk, partially installed software, etc. Given my messy system, do you advise I do a clean install of 14.04 (as I would if it was messed up Windows) or do an upgrade (I think they use the term "update")?

If I do a clean install I need an inventory of the applications I have installed so I know what to re-install on 14.04. Synaptic is a list of modules not apps so I do not know how to get an inventory equivalent to the Sysinfo app in Windows.

Any other advise in moving from 12.-4 to 14.04 is welcome.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

If 12.04 is working for you, why upgrade at all? Precise is LTS and supported til April 2017......are you getting issues in Precise?

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Bruce MacAlister (w4bru) said : 		#2

I got a push from Canonical that it was ready for prime-time and upgrade appears on every update manager session.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

Yes but my point is that you don't have to, there is still 3 years of full support in Precise. If Precise isn't broken, why are you proposing to fix it?

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IvoGuerreiro (ivoguerreiro) said : 		#4

Well, about your app list you can:

see:

sudo dpkg -l

or you can create a list.txt

cd ~
sudo dpkg -l > list.txt

to see the list

nano lista.txt

BR.

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Bruce MacAlister (w4bru) said : 		#5

I asked for advice and you gave it. Thank you. Since you do not see a compulsion to upgrade I'll hold off until I find a greater need.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#6

But there was lots of life in the old version. Its like having a Windows 7 system then getting Windows 8 when it came out, just because. Windows 7 has tonnes of support left so the upgrade makes no sense if Windows 7 is doing the job.

So why would you fix something that is not broken,? I'd understand if there were issues you were having in Precise were resolved in Trusty, but you said it was not having any problems.

It's not that I don't have a compulsion to upgrade, it's that the OS is doing it's job so why expend effort and do what you did.

So, as I plainly asked, why did you upgrade when the release you had instaled had 3 more years of support and the upgrade you did nets you near zero gain.....

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Bruce MacAlister (w4bru) said : 		#7

You are correct, I did not directly answer your question. On my second Ubuntu machine I keep a careful inventory of my installed applications using PPAs for all that offer them and links, etc for those that do not. My first machine is a mess of partly installed apps and lots of junk. It is like my messy desk or workbench; every so often I go into clean-up mode. I do not like messy so I need a way to clean it up just so I have a clean machine. It seems to me that if I'm going to clean up the mess in machine #1, I might just as well strip all the software away and start over with the latest LTS. Your advice does mean I can wait until the messiness of that machine causes me to finally clean it up.