Can a distro be upgraded offline

[devaj]

Hi all,a complete Linux newbie (noobie) here so please bear with me O wise ones.

After a long time of thinking and searching on the web about Linux not being that hard,I downloaded vector Linux 5.9 std edition a few days ago and burned it on a DVD day-before-yesterday (had planned installing it this weekend).
To my surprise today I saw and confirmed that vector linux 6.0 has been released YESTERDAY.

Now can anyone tell me do I have to download the latest release i.e vector Linux 6.0,burn it and throw the still not used DVD in the trash or is there a way out .Can I install vector or any Linux from its previous versions and upgrade it to the latest version.Is there a way to do a offline upgrade like downloading the latest ISO of Linux and installing the files through it.


If not would somebody be kind enough to please tell me what is the difference between the latest release ISO version of Linux and its predecessor.


P.S:The place from where I come from high speed broadbad is still a privilege here and DVDs are still expensive (I know life sucks for some).I requested a friend of mine who has high speed internet to download this,hence the question for offline upgrade.(Am on a cheapo dialup connection so downloading the latest version would take me weeks if not a month or so)

Thank you for having the time and patience reading my problem and hopefully answering them.GOD bless

[dijetlo]

Vector is a branch of Slackware so you can probably roll an upgrade with slackpkg and a little creative editing of the "slackpkg.conf" or "mirrors" files. Slackpkg will only download and install the packages that have changed between versions, so it could help you with that slow internet connection problem.
Honestly though, if download times and DVDs' are worrisome, I'd just load 5.9 on the thing and get to it. If you find you love Vector and absolutely must have the latest version, you'll be in a much better position to do that efficiently and cheaply with a couple of months experience working with the current distro.

[reed9]

You can usually check out the release notes to see what's new in a distro. VectorLinux Standard Edition 6.0 — VectorLinux.com

Generally, in linux versioning scheme, point releases are bug-fixes or minor, and major releases can incorporate more drastic changes - new programs, new ways of doing things, etc. However, if 5.9 works for you, there's no great hurry to upgrade. Some distros offer a clean upgrade path, some do not and recommend or require a clean install. I'm not sure with Vector. You should poke around their website and see if it has anything to say on the matter. It's based on Slackware, and uses slapt-get, so you can try that tool. This is a slackware guide, so, for example, you would need to make sure the slaptgetrc file is pointed at the correct repos, ie, not the slackware ones. Upgrade Using Slapt-get - SlackWiki

[devaj]

THANK YOU ALL FOR REPLYING.Since the sages have spoken,I am now in a better position to make a decision.I guess i would stick with 5.9 version and if I really like it I would request my friend to download the latest version and have it burned on a cd this time.Thank you all once again.GOD bless