Upgrading to Ubuntu 14.04

[Skele Drew]

I'm currently running Zorin OS 7, but I'd like to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu and keep my installed apps. What is the least painful way to do this?

[ramesh]

I doubt it's possible to do this easily

[carey]

The least painful way would be to backup the configuration files; capture the list of installed packages; probably install the Ubuntu in a partition without removing Zorin; then migrate.

All this was without finding out what Zorin is. I have never used that distribution.

[jamrock]

I'm currently running Zorin OS 7, but I'd like to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu and keep my installed apps. What is the least painful way to do this?

These are 2 separate operating systems. An upgrade means moving from one version of an operating system to a more recent version of the same operating system.

[carey]

These are 2 separate operating systems. An upgrade means moving from one version of an operating system to a more recent version of the same operating system.

On some distributions, this does not matter. Puppy can use binaries from various linux. It's simply getting your list of installed applications because linux is open source and you would be smart to use open source software, thoroughly! That is why proprietary software has no place here. They interrupt future advancement.

[jamrock]

On some distributions, this does not matter. Puppy can use binaries from various linux. It's simply getting your list of installed applications because linux is open source and you would be smart to use open source software, thoroughly! That is why proprietary software has no place here. They interrupt future advancement.

Are you saying that he can insert the Ubuntu DVD and run an upgrade of his current Linux installation?

[carey]

Are you saying that he can insert the Ubuntu DVD and run an upgrade of his current Linux installation?

If he is

1. Using Ubuntu's main repositories
2. Using a spin of Ubuntu
3. Not using a different layout from Ubuntu packages
4. Not several kernel releases behind

Then it should be possible.

[jamrock]

Have you done something like this before?

[carey]

Have you done something like this before?

You are right. Zorin behaves just like Windows. It will break if an upgrade like this is attempted. Did some searches and it is proven to break. One person saw Ubuntu's kernel show up in an update run and would have ended up with a borked system if they accepted it.

[jamrock]

I don't think the issue is limited to Zorin. Each distro has distro specific components. File names will be different, etc.

For example, Red Hat and CentOS start with the same source code but they are different operating systems with different file names.

As far as I know, a clean installation is necessary to move from one distro to another.