Re: [Evolution] Moving from evolution to evolution

[Adam Tauno Williams <awilliam whitemice org>]

Matthew Barnes <mbarnes redhat com> wrote:
> I'm still a little confused as to why so many users seem to feel the
> need to backup and restore their personal data just to upgrade their
> operating system in place.  Backing up of course is a prudent safety
> measure, but if the upgrade goes smoothly there should be no need to
> restore the backup.
> Are there actually distro installers that don't allow you to upgrade
> without nuking your home directory, or do some installers not make that
> option clear enough, or am I just misunderstanding the problem?


AFAIK all mainstream distros do non-destructive in-place upgrades.  I've upgraded openSUSE from 11.0 to 
present (12.1) without restoring anything.


I think this stems from a clinging to the obsolete practice of periodic re-install.  I have no idea why users 
do this but it is very prevalent amoung the ones I talk to;  they reinstall all the time.


> There does seem to be a large concentration of Ubuntu users reporting
> these kinds of problems, but that might just be a statistical anomaly
> rather than something Ubuntu is doing wrong.


I don't believe it is anomalous;  it jives perfectly with my first-hand experience.    Ubuntu users 
in-the-main inherit the worst practices of 1990s era PC users.  It is very frustrating to try to help them 
even in person - turn your back for a few minutes and the are reinstalling to see if that will magickally fix 
thier problem (whatever that is).
-- 
Adam Tauno Williams