The Ultimate Question - Upgrade or Re-Install?

[Chanchao]

On Mon, 2007-04-23 at 12:20 -0500, Tab Gilbert wrote:

> I always do a fresh install just to force myself to do an inventory of
> what is important and what is just collected fluff.

Okay, and this fluff actually slows you down, or takes up any space
worth mentioning at all on your harddisk?

It DOESNT.   Let it be.  Don't be a control freak.  Fluff is software
too, live and let live.

The only things I do check is stuff that starts up and runs as a
service.  But that is easily disabled or uninstalled using your
favourite package manager.

>   Plus, I like the practice so when the neighbor's machine gets eaten
> up by the window worms I already know about any potential problems
> when they get converted over to Ubuntu.  

If Ubuntu needed that much practise and keeping current then it wouldn't
BE an alternative to Windows.   Pop in the disc and tell it what
timezone you're in and that's pretty much it.  Anything after that is
not related to the installation process itself.

> I have seen on the list that the upgrade option takes a relatively
> long time compared to a fresh install.  

Not when you add the time to install all the software you need and
configure it.

As it happens I upgraded my wife's computer to Feisty this morning.  It
was a 760 MB download.   So that's not significantly more or less than
downloading an ISO and THEN download all the extra software.

Cheers,
Chanchao