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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Upgrade vs Reinstall (lemmy.world)

submitted 10 months ago by YourHuckleberry@lemmy.world to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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I'm a generalist SysAdmin. I use Linux when necessary or convenient. I find that when I need to upgrade a specific solution it's often easier to just spin up an entirely new instance and start from scratch. Is this normal or am I doing it wrong? For instance, this morning I'm looking at a Linux VM whose only task is to run Acme.sh to update an SSL cert. I'm currently upgrading the release. When this is done I'll need to upgrade acme.sh. I expect some kind of failure that will require several hours to troubleshoot, at which point I'll give up and start from scratch. I'm wondering if this is my ignorance of Linux or common practice?

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[–] palordrolap@kbin.social 2 points 10 months ago

Whatever makes you happiest in the moment.

If you have any concerns whatsoever that an upgrade over the top of an existing system might cause problems and/or leave cruft behind that will bug you, however harmless it might be: backup, format the system partition, install fresh.

Otherwise, backup, install the upgrade.

One strategy might be to upgrade a couple of times and then for the next upgrade, start afresh instead.

That might be what I choose to do when the next version of my distro comes out since I've upgraded the last couple of times. Prior to that I basically started afresh because I changed distro. Maybe I'll change distro again.

I should probably mention that I'm a home user in charge of one PC and have never been a main sysadmin (sysadmin gofer and work monkey, yes; boss, no), so you might want to take this under advisement.