MX Linux Forum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1sE6LDTwdw

Always nice for MX to get more recognition. <3

Jay is also the author of the "Mastering Ubuntu Server - Fourth Edition" book.

Good to watch a review that mirrors my time using MXL 23.2 now started on MXL 21 about 11months ago and very happy with MXL.

So many positive comment are always valuable.

FullScale4Me wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:04 pm Jay is also the author of the "Mastering Ubuntu Server - Fourth Edition" book.

Funnily enough, he also did a video semi-recently slamming Ubuntu and like distros. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqfyM7zE6KM

Not a bad review but I did make a comment (@Siamhie) about the upgrade path (6 minute mark).

Arnox wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 7:43 am

FullScale4Me wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:04 pm Jay is also the author of the "Mastering Ubuntu Server - Fourth Edition" book.

Funnily enough, he also did a video semi-recently slamming Ubuntu and like distros. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqfyM7zE6KM

Yes, and about his book - he's said a Fifth edition from him is not likely.

siamhie wrote: Mon Mar 04, 2024 8:35 am Not a bad review but I did make a comment (@Siamhie) about the upgrade path (6 minute mark).

Saw that, glad you responded else I would have because it appears he was more than a little fixated on it.

The upgrade of MX Linux option missing that you mention is the only thing I find missing and I hope one day they figure out how to add that option. The only time there is an upgrade option is that version of Linux is based on the same Debian version. I have suggested the MX Linux developers reach out to other developers of other Linux distros that have an upgrade option that are based off of Debian on how it's done, but I don't know what ever became of it.

Is that all that important the upgrade when some have a separate /home on the installs for that as a workaround ?

artytux wrote: Tue Mar 05, 2024 2:27 am Is that all that important the upgrade when some have a separate /home on the installs for that as a workaround ?

Having finally watched the video, I think the answer is "it depends". If all you do is install some software from official repositories, do some browsing, and enjoy playing Swell Foop while you wait for "apt-get upgrade" to finish, installing the next version of MX on top of your old install, preserving /home, and then re-installing those user-installed packages is probably not a big deal. You're likely to not even lose your bookmarks.

On the other hand, MX and its upstream distro Debian sometimes make fairly significant changes in, say, calendar panel programs, so your desktop may end up looking different or being broken in some unpredictable way. Having a separate /home partition doesn't matter as much because you're still going to end up with whatever the new desktop settings are and you'll want to bring over your old user configs in piecemeal fashion.

Where having a separate space on the disk for /home really matters is when you're reinstalling, and the minstall tool can reuse the existing /home mountpoint without you needing to recreate anything except usernames and credentials.

There is an obscure entry in the MX wiki or manual that used to explain that (paraphrased) because MX does include newer packages (albeit built on the same base) than what you normally get on Debian Stable, that may interfere with the more straightforward upgrade path that is available in Debian from one Stable release to the next. So there is a compromise here - you get fresher packages now compared to Debian, but then every 2 to 5 years, you have to take a little more time to upgrade your system.

I would also surmise that systemd is an issue. Debian does not have systemd-shim, only MX does.

Plus, with every new Debian Stable, more applications in Debian remove the sysV scripts that used to come as default with the apps. Some devs assume that no one uses the sysV scripts anymore, or they don't care.

@DukeComposed that explains a few oddities when I did use old /home mm . . . next time use my own icons and dolphinrc Inc keyboard shortcuts is probably a better way to avoid problems than recycling /home, I'll be keeping the new as a copy elsewhere just in case, got few years to make notes for next upgrade,
Thanks for the reply.