fedora-upgrade from F17->F18 (mostly successful, but some issues)

[Ranjan Maitra]

On Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:14:20 -0500 "Eddie G. O'Connor Jr."
<eoconnor25 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 01/21/2013 01:53 PM, Ranjan Maitra wrote:
> > On Mon, 21 Jan 2013 13:28:12 -0500 "Eddie G. O'Connor Jr."
> > <eoconnor25 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> I too was going to install F18...but I will wait until F19 or F20 before
> >> I move forward....I have way too much riding on this laptop working
> >> properly...and since it's an "old" Gateway....I'd rather not have to
> >> deal with various problems.....issues...and "broken" things....so no
> >> "18" for me...as long as there's going to be a Gnome 3.x version for
> >> Fedora I'll always use it...just not when it becomes too buggy....
> >>
> >>
> >> EGO II
> >> -- 
> > Many of us (like you) do use our linux (Fedora) machines for work (and
> > largely so). Some of us also happen to believe in the philosophy and
> > value of OSS. However, the software can only improve if we try them out
> > and provide feedback. Therefore, it is important for us to try these
> > out and report. Our feedback is valuable to the developers whose work
> > is of greater value and should be appreciated. Both together lead to
> > value in the OSS world.
> >
> > As an aside, I would have preferred a rolling release model with a
> > snapshot (these could be the releases every six months) once in a while.
> > This keeps packages more stable and also guards against the mad rush to
> > somehow get a release out (to Fedora's credit, they did do a 2.5-month
> > delay to get 18 right, but it appears that they should have waited much
> > more. Of course, the rolling release model is not something that Fedora
> > developers have decided to go for, and they do have the final say in
> > this matter (as they should: of course I hope they pause to reconsider).
> >
> > In my mind, the biggest issue with F18 is the installer which has been
> > commented on, and which puts things like disk partitioning under the
> > rug. Perhaps the goal is to mimic other popular (by ways of mob vote)
> > OS's, but some of us have never used anything other than a unix/linux
> > system and these users should not have to pay the price for not
> > expecting to use days of agony to upgrade a system, as I happily note my
> > friends in these other OS-worlds do.
> >
> > As another aside, about ten or so years ago, I was given to understand
> > that if a package moved to 1.0, it would be stable in perpetuity, in
> > the sense that old methods would continue to work with minor changes if
> > at all. I don't know if I misunderstood but this was a good model to go
> > by, in my opinion.
> >
> > Best wishes,
> > Ranjan
> >
> >
> I agree with you....and although I am anxious as all "get out" to put 18 
> on my machine...I think I will dust off my old Dell Inspirion and put it 
> on there to "test" it out. I would hate to think the developers feel 
> they're unappreciated. I wish I could e-mail them directly and tell them 
> just how MUCH they're appreciated....I used to use Windows 
> because....frankly that was all I knew...then I saw a friend using F14 
> and I couldn't BELIEVE the things he showed me....things I would be able 
> to "do" in Fedora that I would NEVER be able to do in Windows...(don't 
> like the way we setup your Windows NT 4.0 desktop?...TOO BAD!) And then 
> he dropped the "bomb" on me letting me know he paid NOTHING for it! I 
> was FLOORED I immediately went home and following his directions 
> (because I didn't even know what an .iso WAS!) I installed it on this 
> same Gateway..totally blew away the Windows OS, and I've not looked back 
> since, I've installed other versions of Linux on my desktops...(I have 
> three...Linux Mint......CEntOS...and Scientific Linux) but Fedora has 
> been my "main" machine. I also wouldn't mind them switching to a rolling 
> release.....I'm sure it would go a lot smoother regarding old hardware 
> and peripherals and such, but I'm an "F'er" for life! I don't think I 
> can ever go back to a Windows environment, not because of the price 
> factor...(I contribute to the Fedoraproject regularly!) but because if 
> it's limitations! I can only send out a hearty "Thank You" to everyone 
> who's involved with cranking out this most awesome OS. Cheers!!
> 

In my view, F12-14 (if i recall correctly) were the distribution's high
points. Everything worked off the box: liveUSB installs took 2-3
minutes after the final button was clicked.

I think F18 is not all that bad, once one can get the installation done
successfully. Seriously though, the installer has to be fixed, and I
don't see how this can be done in the updates: new DVD/CDs should be
rolled out because the installer is where many of the problems (but not
all) are. I got into the problems in this thread simply because I could
not use the installer to install on a system which had existing disks,
some of which I did not want reformatted.

I also installed F18 on a separate machine (with Broadcom wifi woes)
from scratch (new formatted HDD, etc) and there are no issues there
once the Broadcom wifi was sorted out (with Zoltan's help).

Ranjan

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