Still worth an upgrade?
 

I have an install of sarge that I didnt' really keep up to date over the last few years. . .

apt-get -s upgrade gives me about 400 packages it would upgrade? Is this worth it. . .or should I just format and reinstall?

My suggestion: Do a fresh reinstall using Etch.

If you can afford to do a format and reinstall from scratch, you will have a much smoother time than upgrading, in the general cases.

Using sid is so good for me!
It is steady for my PC!
And so many newest packages ,compared with Sarge!

reinstall?!!

Bite your tongue. LOL

I sort of slid from Sarge to sid. I started with my sources pointed to unstable. Didn't really pay attention to when all the releases moved up the ladder. Unstable to testing to stable.

Anyway I ended up with etch. Not too many problems at the time but it was missing k3b so I went to sid. I have never looked back as sid has been very stable.

If you have some extra time I would try the upgrade. I have done several and they all have went very smooth. Even upgraded from xfree to xorg with no problems. 2.4.X to 2.6.X kernel on the same system with no problems. I had my data backed up for that one.

Install apt-listbugs so you can make sure you don't install any packages with a lot of problems. Also if you do upgrade it's always a good idea to upgrade just apt, apt-utils and dpkg first.

Each release has notes for upgrading you should read those too.

I use sid every day for my business. I have only had one problem with it. I upgraded a kernel and didn't alow it to upgrade my lilo config. I wasn't paying attention and just refused before I read it. Even that was very easy to fix. I booted using a slackware cd and pointed it to my root partition. The instructions are on the boot screen for slackware so I don't remember the command. I then installed and configured grub. Rebooted to my working system. Took about 5 minutes.

Either way good luck and consider sid instead of etch.

Steve

I am happy I have Etch installed instead of Sarge. Many programs have been improved.

The question is: re-install or upgrade?

Upgrading *is* possible, right now I am working on a machine which is functional again after a dist-upgrade, but it was not easy.

Be sure to upgrade your kernel if that is not enforced by dist-upgrade, and delete all your KDE settings before you start running KDE 3.5. I have posted a few issues here during the past few weeks which might provide you a few tips.

jlinkels

Just upgrade:
"Upgrading Debian GNU/Linux from Sarge to Etch"
http://wiki.debian.org/Sarge2EtchUpgrade

You really shouldn't run into that many problems. If you have broadband connection 400 packages isn't really that many, I forgot to update my Debian Sid system for a month a while back and had over 800 packages that needed updating.

Upgrade to Etch and leave your sources.list pointing to Etch that way when it becomes Stable you will still be running Stable. Personally I prefer Sid, but daily/weekly dist-upgrading isn't for everyone.