• Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca
      4·
      8 days ago

      I’m new to Linux, do you just wipe your computer when switching distros or dual boot or what?

      • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        7·
        7 days ago

        In this scenario if a user is using Debian 12 (Bookworm) and wanted to upgrade to Debian 13 (Trixie) it is possible to do by editing your /etc/apt/sources.list file and replacing Bookworm with Trixie.

        Obviously consult the documentation and backup your files before making drastic changes to your operating system.

      • somerandomperson@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        71·
        8 days ago

        I HIGHLY recommend backing everything you give a fuck about and wiping the disk clean. Because windows breaks linux.

        Before you look at a list of distros and wonder which one to install, choose if you are __:

        Arch Linux -> if you think you know how linux exactly works (likely not)

        Arch-based distros (CachyOS, EndeavourOS, etc.) -> If you want to use arch but with some help

        Linux Mint -> Recommended for beginners.

        Fedora -> It just works :tm:

        Debian -> ol’ reliable

        openSUSE -> If you tweaked windows

        Atomic Distros -> if you want a system that you can’t break

        • four@lemmy.zipEnglish
          8·
          8 days ago

          Arch Linux -> if you think you know how linux exactly works (likely not)

          Or if you want to be forced to learn how Linux exactly works lol

        • Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca
          3·
          8 days ago

          Appreciate the advice. I put Ubuntu Studio on my laptop the other day, wiping Windows completely. I was more wondering about distro to distro, I see people say they try other distros a lot and was wondering if they wipe everything each time or if there’s a way to transfer between distros?

      • gnuhaut@lemmy.ml
        6·
        8 days ago

        I recommend anyone to do a backup (I haven’t always and it bit me). However, if you create separate /home partition you can keep that between re-installs, even re-installs of different distros. And you can also share the same home partition between multiple OSs you might have installed at the same time.

        Sharing /home between distros can cause issues though: If one distro’s $SOFTWARE is newer that the other distro’s, they will still share the same dotfile configuration, and while most software is designed to deal with older configuration/database/etc files, older software many times cannot deal with newer files.

      • banazir@lemmy.ml
        4·
        7 days ago

        Depends wholly on the situation. Right now, I needed Windows for a piece of hardware with no Linux support, so I installed Windows and just steamrolled my earlier openSUSE Leap installation. I will now dual boot with Debian for a while until I no longer need Windows.

        When switching distros, you can usually copy your config files over. Or you can have a separate /home partition that doesn’t get wiped. This can cause issues though, due to version and structural differences between distros.

        Personally, I only save what I absolutely need, like say browser bookmarks, and prefer to just get a fresh start. So, I just wipe everything. How you want to go about it is up to what you feel comfortable with, however. There’s rarely any one true way to do things in Linux. Free as in Freedom.

        Always remember to backup any data before switching distros though. Always.

        • Jack_Burton@lemmy.ca
          1·
          7 days ago

          Ok so you just wipe and reinstall all software every time? I was wondering if there was an easier way to keep everything but I guess it makes sense that Linux is just less automated and all about manual intervention so put in the work haha

  • methodicalaspect@midwest.socialEnglish
    19·
    8 days ago

    Proxmox 9 dropped too, their major releases coincide with Debian’s. Upgrade process on a single standalone box was completely uneventful; I’ll be trying a 9-node cluster on Monday.

  • Samsy@lemmy.ml
    9·
    7 days ago

    Did a test upgrade on one. Really easy and without trouble. Tomorrow Ansible script to upgrade all.

    • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works
      6·
      7 days ago

      I’ve done 3 dist-upgrades… Just read the release notes and if not, at least the warnings that show up during the apt upgrade process… Dont just hit “yes” or “quit” on all the text

    • ohshit604@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      8·
      7 days ago

      I upgraded my distro relatively easily, had to purge and reinstall my nvidia packages & driver but other than that we’re back in action almost as if nothing changed.

      KDE got a bit fancier with Plasma 6, a lot of themes no longer work.

      • darkreader2636@lemmy.zip
        7·
        7 days ago

        I read the upgrade notes and nothing seems changed for my setup (intel igpu and xfce4) so i’ll wait for a few weeks and probably do an upgrade then