[mythtv-users] How to avoid upgrade headaches

[Johnny]

> So I was wondering, what do you guys do to avoid this constant "upgrading"
> problem. I know I could go with slackware, but I'd really like something
> that is simpler. Debian seems good, but how would I go about upgrading myth
> to the new version when that comes out? Also, the mythbuntu control center
> is pretty sweet and really makes it easy to get things like remotes and
> transmitters going, so would I miss that by going to Debian?

I take the opposite approach. I upgrade as often as I reasonably can.
The less frequent your upgrades the more likely you are to run into
issues and the harder it is to track down because there were so many
changes. The distro maintainers also spend most of their time insuring
a clean update path from the last release. Once you get back further
you are going further into untested waters. I upgrade my Ubuntu system
usually a month or so after each release. My last two upgrades (8.10
-> 9.04 -> 9.10) took about 45 minutes. I clicked OK a few times. And
I was off without any problems. When I do have an issue it is usually
just one problem and it is easier to track down because there weren't
that many changes, and lots of others are doing the exact same thing
as me. Along those lines, I update my system every week or so in
between releases. Again that way I am making minimum amount of changes
during a given update so it is easy know what caused a problem. And
problems just don't happen that often when making small changes. Also
when I do a distribution upgrade the changes usually aren't that
dramatic between a fully updated system and the next release.