Do the yast upgrade, download the 5 cds? What's going to be the best way?

19 views and no one has any idea?

The 5 CDs would be better in my opinion.
1.) ftp takes a lot of time and if you make any mistakes, you might have to redo quite a bit.
2.) Having the 5 CDs allows you to install all the applications you want (including the kernel source which you need if you want to use nvidia or ati 3d drivers)

basically the 5 CDs are more useful if you want to re-install or install for others.

Umm. I've got a 64 bit system, and I'm not prepared to run the 64 bit SUSE yet. I've just upgraded and decided to stay with 32 bit. You should check your hardware carefully if deciding to try out 64 bit to make sure you have drivers for everything. Eg, some wireless cards will have trouble.
Then there's software...no flash - so you need to run 32 bit Mozilla etc.

Using 32 bit SUSE, it will appear exactly the same as if you were running it on a 32 bit CPU. If you have SUSE already installed, you can get the CD's (or DVD) and boot from those. It will automagically detect things and suggest an upgrade.
Depending how much you mucked around with your existing install will affect how easy the upgrade process is.

The "Update your system" in YaST is not really a way to upgrade the base SUSE itself.

hth
ws

That would be something new... for Novell. There is a Novell web page where it is described step-by-step how to upgrade with YAST.

Gee, who could rely on the docs, huh?

From SUSE manual:

"2.2.5. System Update

This module enables an update of the version installed on your system. During operation, you can only update application software, not the SUSE LINUX base system. To update the base system, boot the computer from an installation medium, such as CD. When selecting the installation mode in YaST, select ‘Update an Existing System’ instead of ‘New Installation’.

The procedure for updating the system is similar to a new installation. Initially, YaST examines the system, determines a suitable update strategy, and presents the results in a suggestion dialog. Click the individual items with the mouse to change any details. Some items, such as ‘Language’ and ‘Keyboard Layout’, are covered in the section explaining the installation procedure (see Section 1.3, “Language Selection”). This section only covers update-specific settings. "

ws