I'm still on Debian 9, and that's because I can't afford to upgrade. I am pretty sure some things will break, they always do. I just don't know which ones. Until I can afford to buy a second machine and to reserve some time to experiment with a new Debian (neither will be happening anytime soon), I am firmly stuck with Stretch.

But I can't afford to remain in Stretch forever either. I mean, does anybody still run Woody?

So I just learned about NixOS. I really loved the concept of being able to install different versions of software (and configuration!) in parallel and rolling back changes if necessary. I really, really, I mean I REALLY like that idea. I am hoping that I will never have to fear upgrades again if I ever install NixOS. So maybe I will go with it instead when I finally have the chance to do an upgrade.

But is it as good as it seems on the marketing brochure?

What is your experience with it, in case you have any?

Download a live spin and boot it. That will tell you if everything will work. If anything I'd expect stuff to work better but who knows I guess.

Any examples you have to share?
(I screwed my docker during upgrade, but that was my mistake. Normally one needs to backup docker data, upgrade. Then if docker KO, import data in the docker db. It was my 1st time with docker, and I messed up the docker paths.)
What real life examples you have to share?

1 members found this post helpful.

debian upgrade usually works quite well (if the system is not misconfigured by the admin).

Boot a 'live' pendrive on your computer, to confirm an install won't 'break' anything.

That is remarkably unhelpful.

Not in the long run. I was hoping to get opinions from people who actually use it and have been with it for some time.

"who knows I guess"
Sigh...

I was hoping to get opinions from people who actually use it and have been with it for some time.

Packages that were maintained in the previous OS version and were dropped altogether,
VMWare refusing to work on a newer kernel,
the odd application that won't run on the newest Wine (and the older one isn't available in the newer repository),
the complete KXStudio collection (at least a dozen packages)
plus a ton of music production applications that may not work on current Debian,
image/photography packages that were hard to install on Stretch and won't likely run at all on newer Debian (Photivo and Corel AfterShot),
the Comodo Antivirus,
SuperTuxKart 8 (very superior to 9),
an old hacked installation of the Opera browser before it became Chrome in disguise,
possibly others I don't remember right now.

This can happen in your current debian via virtualbox. Try latest deb in VB and when satisfied, upgrade.

Packages that were maintained in the previous OS version and were dropped altogether,
> Not sure how that affects you. In backend many things are dropped or added. Not sure how it affects in real world.

VMWare refusing to work on a newer kernel,
> Wiki: Debian 11 (Bullseye) was released on 14 August 2021.[2] It is based on the Linux 5.10 LTS kernel and will be supported for five years.
Hence Please google and try to find if there are issues. I dont use vmware.

the odd application that won't run on the newest Wine (and the older one isn't available in the newer repository),
> again, some examples would help. Anyways, win10 is free and can be used in VirBox rather than wine.

the complete KXStudio collection (at least a dozen packages)
> https://kx.studio/Downloads
tar files and can work on deb. Try in virbox.

plus a ton of music production applications that may not work on current Debian,
> hmm

image/photography packages that were hard to install on Stretch and won't likely run at all on newer Debian (Photivo and Corel AfterShot),
> https://www.aftershotpro.com/en/free-trials/
Fedora®19 or Ubuntu® 14.04 or later (64-bit distributions) : means should work on latest deb.

the Comodo Antivirus,
> hmm

SuperTuxKart 8 (very superior to 9),
an old hacked installation of the Opera browser before it became Chrome in disguise,
> opera fan? but what about vulnerabilities if you stick with older version of browser?

possibly others I don't remember right now.

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I know my post is not so helpful. But then the other option is to go with Redhat linux or some linux distro which doesnt change for 10/many years. You will then continue to get security updates without too much of upgrade worries.