After a lot of time (and lots more help from the forum) I got Mandrake running almost as I want. In Windows only once every year or two a new version came out. By that time it was a good idea to do a clean reinstall anyway so I never minded.
Linux upgrades a lot faster so I'm wondering what will happen if the next version comes out. Can I upgrade to that version without losing what I got working so far or is it better to do a clean install to not miss-out on things that might not be installed if I upgrade?
What's the big difference between the regular updates? If it's 'only' the kernel I understand that I can compile a new one myself (which will probably cost me a lot of sleep, just read some posts about that subject). Would that make it 9.2 or does an upgrade like that go much further?

Regards

First of all when you do a fresh install the only thing that will changes will be system oriented. Your home directory and settings will not change. I've gotten use to upgrading every 6 months. All I have to do is once install is done is to reload any special sw that isn't on the cd's and put the login screen back the way I like it. As for any special driver you might have to load is that you never know they might not be needed with next rev or hw that wasn't support out of the box - but now is.

Generally (speaking of what I've seen in Mandrake releases) the point releases have newer kernels and newer packages too. A lot of it is the same, but there's tons of little fixes and stuff that make it hard to resist upgrading

Its definitely more than the kernel. I haven't looked yet, but I'm sure if you dig around on the mandrake site, you can see which new things (packages, fixes etc.) have been added.

As for the install vs upgrade issue, in my personal experience Mandrake has ALWAYS buggered up the "upgrade" option for me (although a lot of users I talk to say it worked for them) so last couple of times what I did was backup my /home directory, did a clean install, then restored my /home backup and I was golden...everything worked great.

9.2 is supposed to have improved the upgrade function (I read that on the mandrakeuser.org forums somewhere) so I might just try it out (since I back up my /home directory anyway, I have nothing to lose right?)

By clean install I mean a format and install. So, a lot of things do change, self compiled software won't be there anymore for example. Even worse: back to installing endless amounts of libs and devel packages to get to the point where compiling will work again.
I like to compile and get everything the way I think is logical, but I want to keep up with things I'm not good enough for yet, lik compiling a new kernel etc. 9.2 (and whatever comes next) will do those things as long as I can't do it myself. Hope an upgrade won't make me do all the things I got working now again or leave me with non upgraded system parts.

@tcaptain: we were typing at the same time Backing up the home dir wont be a prb. Easy to make an extra partition and save it there. Does leave the self compiled software problem. I guess it's best to try and see if an upgrade does the job, if not I'm sure to spend a lot of time trying the things that worked before again and might get even better at it in the proces

If you visit the Penguin Liberation front and use the easy urpmi you might not have to recompile anything. I do all types of video capture to dvd burning and I havn't had to compile anything.

twinkers: Well do you install/compile a LOT of your own programs? That would affect my decision....

However, I failed to mention a few other details about my own system

I also back up my /sources directory that way I can easily keep track of what I've compiled and stuff....so just restoring my /sources and going in and compiling each tree is an extra step sure....but its the cost of doing a clean install.

I'm trying to install all my software by compiling. That way I'm learning Linux as I go. I don't use rpm a lot. So my usr/local/ is quite full Backing up my home dir only gives me the downloaded tar's so a lot of work....

If that's how you want to do it, maybe Mandrake isn't your best choice, I hate to say (since I love Mandrake). Slack or Gentoo might be worth a try.

However, why compile EVERYTHING you use? I can see compiling lots of apps you can't find using URPMI or rpms but all of it?

Moderation is best...compile some, use rpms for others or discover the joys of URPMI

Any of you guys install OpenOffice?
It's kind of cool since you download the RPM file and it has a install wizard just like Windows!!! I wish all RPM files were like that.

The latest version of Openoffice is included in the MDK9.2 release. I've been using it.

I wish it wasn't included so people could see how simple the install wizard is in the OpenOffice RPM file. It's kinda cool!
BUT, I am REALLY glad that OpenOffice will be included in Mandrake 9.2 because it is comparable to Microsoft Office, but it's free!

(one thing I can't figure out still is how to print envelopes. OpenOffice still can't print them correctly on my HP printer.)

I just wanted to chime in here too...

I'm dying for 9.2 to be released because I've got 2 people besides myself lined up to install linux. I want the power pack. I want the newest stuff. I want the sexy glossy install guides and box, since it adds to the "legitimacy" of a new OS. But I don't want to dink around with my machine until we're out of release candidate... although truthfully most of my software is already upgraded to the 9.2 versions.

On a personal note, I'm genuinely looking forward to killing a Sunday afternoon watching football and installing 9.2... oh man...

Oh yeah, I meant to ask.

Anyone on this board close enough to the process to report any gossip on when it might be released? All I've heard is "late September".