“Can’t wait to upgrade your Windows XP machines to Vista? eWEEK Labs tests show that a clean install is the faster, less-problematic, option. While our upgrade experience was fairly good, we recommend that administrators opt instead for a clean install, teamed perhaps with Vista’s Windows Easy Transfer utility for carrying over files and settings from the previous install.”
As with all upgrades. You always come out with a better result if you start with a clean sheet.
agreed…. regardless of OS
and dont give me….
apt-get dist-upgrade
clean install always better
I wouldn’t say “always”. A clean install of all Gentoos from 2004.0 to 2006.1 would be a royal PITA.
If a clean install is a royal PITA, then “emerge –sync ; emerge -avu world ; etc-update” must be a godlike PITA.
It’s not the clean install that’s a PITA – it’s making all your stuff (that you had before) work like it did before. Oh, and finding the driver CDs (or downloading new drivers).
Trickier than “emerge –sync ; emerge -avu world ; etc-update”, I would have thought.
Yep.
Besides, I never emerge world.
You brought in the difference between windows and linux when upgrading.
Linux is anal about separating *DATA* from *APPS* to the upgrade path is easier. I’m yet to see a guide that doesn’t separate the two.
Windows due to the registry because the registry has its own cruft problems, a fresh install was always a good idea.
Windows also is reliant on installers some of which leave directories with files in etc.
Windows because of spyware/adware etc for some reason leaves those things lying around for some reason, running in the background.
Because all the sources come from the same source. *I* on my linux simply run a little program to identify cruft on my computer. Their are even similar programs on windows that monitor the installs, try and identify other cruft, but clearly thats a different matter.
In this instance its not booting, in linux you are allowed several copies of the various updates, you do not have to roll-up and roll-back. In fact the closest argument to comparing linux to windows is deciding whether to use “make oldconfig”
Windows is moving towards the Linux way trying to put all software updates from various 2rd party companies though a common portal.
I’m a little concerned that you make the statement “clean install install is always better” which as much as it used to be true back in the days when you got software in boxes, the modern world software requires e-mail conformation, activation, which is *painful*
As with all Windows upgrades. You always come out with a better result if you start with a clean sheet.
Here, I fixed it for you.
…a non-issue? I always clean-install my Linux upgrades. (Well, actually I don’t, but there’s only a few Linuxes, like Gentoo, that I trust to upgrade themselves properly. SuSE, which I also run, isn’t one of them.) Of course, that necessitates separate /home and /usr/local partitions, but you can do the equivalent in Windows by having, say, D:ocuments and P:rograms drives.
And yes I know it’s now SUSE. I like the old spelling.
Well, I can copy over my home folder and have the same desktop on another installation.
This doesn’t work with Windows, because of the registry. So a clean install under Windows would be a loss of every application setting etc. saved in the registry..
When upgrading linux distro, you can backup /etc and selectively choose which settings you want to move to another linux. In Windows it’s all or nothing approach.
Linux configuration is more portable, yet we still need some better way of managing common information in linux, in one place.
Elektra is registry-like thing, though I don’t like it as they don’t have data types (everything’s a string?). GConf is desktop-oriented (relies on handful of Gnome libs). LDAP is a total overkill for storing system registry.
Configuration files aren’t an ultimate solution, but they offer: easy editing, portability, separation/grouping (unlike common registry) and easy identification (standard unix filesystem & search tools just work. Windows doesn’t hve all that.
This doesn’t work with Windows, because of the registry. So a clean install under Windows would be a loss of every application setting etc. saved in the registry..
True, but many apps (at least the ones I use) don’t save settings to the registry, and some that do have an option to export settings.
For power users, a Windows re-installation happens so infrequently, that losing some application settings isn’t really worth worrying about. I use TweakUI to remap My Documents, Desktop, and other folders to a seperate partition.
Here’s what happens when you upgrade from MS-DOS 5 to 6, to Windows 1 > 2 > 3.0/1 > 95 > 98F/SE > Me > XP
http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/update/updatem.htm
This just goes to show quite how unclean it can get
“Here’s what happens when you upgrade from MS-DOS 5 to 6, to Windows 1 > 2 > 3.0/1 > 95 > 98F/SE > Me > XP
http://www.winhistory.de/more/386/update/updatem.htm
This just goes to show quite how unclean it can get”
That was _priceless_ LOL.
Has anyone actually read the article!?
The two main points I get are:-
1) Upgrading longer do to *warnings* about hardware/software incompatibilities.
2) It failed.
The OS should not fail to install.
Lots of Linux dists have failed to install. I unfoundly remember Progeny installer where I had to struggle to even get the keyboard working. But in the end it failed.
The OS should not fail to install.
Linux isn’t the standard operating system whose propaganda insinuates it can bring dead kitties to life.
True, so true… And, you could always export your most important settings from the registry, just in case.
But who could complain when you’re getting everything for free!
“The Vista upgrade process churned for a few hours before announcing that the upgrade had failed, and that we’d be delivered back to our previous Windows XP installation.”
Heh. Could not help but chuckle a little bit on that sentence.
Sort of reminds me of the saying, “If you see me laughing, make sure you have backups!”
Seriously. The MacroDump model hasn’t changed. Your machine(s) are down for several hours of productivity.
Edited 2006-09-05 21:32