Ah, a true believer in multiboot.
One of the reasons you should pass on to @callpaul.eu is that a parallel install of a new version is a stress-free way to do an upgrade.
Iām using AntiX right now. MX26, LMDE, MODICIA, Mint are the others. All are using the same basic data files I keep on my external drive as āPerpetual Filesā so I can boot anyone of them and not lose anything. At least weekly I refresh the perpetual files to keep them currentāchanges in contacts, calendar updates, cute cat pictures (our new little princess named Raven), and so forth.
Perpetual Files is a folder like my walletāID cards, drivers license, credit cards. And monthly, I sync my MEGA account in NZ, as well as updating my picture file there.
I did that once , but just for fun. Did not use them for very long. If I remember correctly, the 5 were Linux Mint & Xfce, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, and Zorin. All of them were on the same HDD.
Dont know why i would need to do that, tried upgrades in the past and spent longer doing that than a clean install.
Change 19 to 19.1 to 19.2 etc ok do that fine
But go from 19.? To 20.0 no thanks clean install
Luckly lmde goes from 5 to 6 then to 7 about every 2 years so no big deal unlike others were it is more frequent
Ok I have a client who has lmde and mate on his machine, by dĆ©faut now he uses mate but last year I was away for 6 weeks and he broke it about a week in so put a dual boot on for the next time since never used it, not sure how it broke in first placeā¦. User error I think
So you installed the same distro again as a backup?
No main one linux mint debian edition, second boot option linux mint mate version.
A parallel install is a clean install. You leave the old version there and install the new on a separate partition.
It helps if
- you need to consult the old release while configuring the new
- the new release has bugs and you need to stick with the old
- you dont have a separate home directory and you need to copy things to the new one.
Thanks first time i have come across such a description
I think I may have invented the name.
I am keen on the parallel install idea ā¦ it takes all the stress out of release upgrades. You can use it for changing distro too.
It does require coming to grips with grub and mhltiboot.
I like the term. On my last install of MX I had both the old and the new version on the same
disk. I have been dual booting for years.
At least 3 of us , now, are doing parallel installs.
It is easy now that disk space is cheap.
One of my tests is how well a distro plays with grub. I frequently run grub-customizer to refresh it, make sure all the distros are included, and to assign it to a particular distro. Right now, MODICIA is the home for grub because it behaves the best. I donāt use Fedora because it plays badly with grub.
That is a good test.
Another is how much control you get over partitioning and writing grub in the installer. There are a few nasty distros that want to āownā your whole diskā¦ especially those that default to zfs.
Be careful with grub customiserā¦ there are messages that it can ruin your grub config files. You have obviously found a way to use it that works for you.
Actually, if a distro interacts poorly with grub-customizer, it goes to the bottom. I donāt have patience for distros that are too āselfish.ā
We canāt have a āuniversalā linux if they conflict with each other. Experimentation and personal choice are fine, but if we want to encourage linux converts, we have to convince developers to create compatible and intuitive distros. By the way, I donāt ever use Arch.
It is the interaction with grub itself that matters.
I do the same for Ubuntu and Debian ā¦ for a real installation is better do a clean installation (i.e Debian from 12 to 13) than take the risk and waste time with any kind of failureā¦
Of course, with VB the risk can be taken
A clean install beats an upgrade every time.
Absolutely when a major version happens, as Ubuntu LTS and Debian too
It is one reason to avoid install Fedora in a real machine ā¦ it releases quickly a new release. If I am not mistaken 2 by year
When the time be friendly with me, I am not sure how openSUSE handles its own schedule, but I am going to try it
A rolling release beats fixed release regardless of how you upgrade.