Distro Version Upgrade

[TaylanUB]

Hi. First post. But i'm diving right into the question.

I really couldn't find anything solid via Google on this.
I wanted to ask if there are any Linux distros that support full version upgrade of the OS.
Like Slackware 12 to 13, or Debian 4 to 5, Ubuntu 8.04 to 9.04, and so on.
I know that some BSDs, at least FreeBSD has that, but what about GNU/Linux?

[GNU-Fan]

Yes, we got this too
I've done upgrades from Debian GNU/Linux Sarge->Etch->Lenny a few times.
One time or another it needs fastening a screw manually when the system was heavily customized. But usually it's fully automatic. You simply edit two lines in a text file and run the updater.

[TaylanUB]

Thanks for letting me know about that.

So Debian can do.

But what other distros?
Any place i can find a full list about how to do it for different distros? That'd be really helpful. (Although Google failed as i said...)

[oz]

Welcome to the forums!

You might like rolling release distributions.

What this means is that once you install the distro, you keep it updated by installing any available updates, daily, weekly, or even monthly, if you wish, and you don't ever have to install the distro again as long as you keep the updates current:

Rolling release - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I've been running Arch Linux for about the last 5 years and it's a rolling release distro.

[TaylanUB]

Thanks for that information.

I think i'll look into Arch, although in case i decide to try it out i hope the installation won't be a failure (like it once happened with FreeBSD, the thing even affected other partitions (no idea how that is, but it happened)) as i'm not very good in the command-line-interface yet. =P

Same goes for Gentoo... The portage system sounds cool but complicated.

[oz]

Arch seems very easy to me, but many users consider it to be very difficult. For that reason, most users either hate it, or love it, and it usually doesn't take them long to decide which it is.

Best of luck with it should you try it.

[Zeroangel]

Thanks for that information.

I think i'll look into Arch, although in case i decide to try it out i hope the installation won't be a failure (like it once happened with FreeBSD, the thing even affected other partitions (no idea how that is, but it happened)) as i'm not very good in the command-line-interface yet. =P

Same goes for Gentoo... The portage system sounds cool but complicated.

Arch is interesting in the way that it allows you to build a linux distro from the ground-up using package management capabilities. But for a beginner it may be disorienting since in arch, you start out at the command line and are already expected to be a somewhat experienced user of linux. The advantage of arch though (aside from pretty good package management) is that its fast, noticeably faster than ubuntu type distros, since you have the choice of not including things into your arch which are not relevant to you.

I would normally avoid portage too if I was a beginner, it is somewhat complicated and its not unusual for patching to fail if your distro is out of date or you have the wrong sources.

The best choice for you all depends on how far down the linux rabbit hole you wanna go.

[TaylanUB]

Software, programming and the like is my future job decision, so yeah, eventually i'll definitely have to be able to use the command line fluently.

As i have this 8 GiB USB Flash Drive now, i think i'll simply go for it. Can't mess up the HDD you know.

[reed9]

Make sure you read the beginner's guide before installing. Preferably have it available either with a hardcopy or on another computer as you install.
Beginners Guide - ArchWiki

Also some info for making an installable USB drive.
Install from USB stick - ArchWiki

[Zeroangel]

Software, programming and the like is my future job decision, so yeah, eventually i'll definitely have to be able to use the command line fluently.

As i have this 8 GiB USB Flash Drive now, i think i'll simply go for it. Can't mess up the HDD you know.

Awesome. I'm sure you'll like it then. Arch will quickly teach you some useful things that it would take you years of experience to learn in a beginner distro like ubuntu.