Fresh Install or Update...?

This is a question everyone has made to him/herself while working in Ubuntu. But what should you do when upgrading from one Ubuntu version to another...?

In my personal case I always format everything and make a freash and clean install to avoid conflicts and unwanted data-loss. Anyways this is something everyone should decide personally, but I'll give you some tips and hints on what you should consider before deciding.

First, updating from one version to another of Ubuntu could be dangerous for older computers which might crash on the process. Maybe some package is removed and replaced with something else it shouldn't be, or maybe some configurations are replaced, making some hardware useless until you find what was changed exactly.

Second, making a fresh install requires you to delete all of your data and formatting your HDD, which means you must make a backup of all of your important data and configurations! But this way you can be sure that everything should work nicely and smoothly, obviously after making the necessary fixes and changes like on any Linux Distribution install.

Third, updating takes a whole lot of time because everything should be downloaded and then installed by the Update Manager...which could be done even easier by downloading the .iso for the Ubuntu site and letting the LiveCD work its magic on the installation.

These are at last 3 facts that should be considered by any Ubunturero. In my case (like I mentioned above) I rather make a fresh install and forget about hunting for missing stuff inside the Fylesystem (which can be frustrating and time-consuming). But that's up to you guys! Hope this was helpful!
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Let's Get This Party Started! (Installing Ubuntu)

Well, we have our Live CD running, we checked that everything worked and we made sure to write down all the needed "fixes" for our hardware to work correctly and smoothly. When we install Ubuntu all the changes we made during the Live CD run will be deleted, so make a list of needed modifications, downloads, fixes and everything else in between! There is a way to keep the changes you did during the Live CD run, but the information it's obsolete and kinda hard to understand for new Ubuntuers. So if you're lucky you won't have to do many changes after installation (again)

Here we go! Fasten your seatbelts! ...

- Double click the nice "Install" icon on your desktop!

- Here's the welcome screen, read it if you wish and hit "Forward".



- Choose your time zone. Hit "forward"



- Choose your country and keyboard layout. USA on both lists will do for most people. Hit "forward"



- Now our little friend "The Partitioner" will load.


- The Partitioner loaded, now select the second option if you want to delete Windows completely. If not select the third option (Manual) and then specify the partition sizes you want. It's important to note that you need a "Swap Area". Just do a little partition of around the same size as your RAM and choose from the dropdown list the "swap" option. If there are any errors, our little friend will let us know! It's easy to use this nice GUI.


- Now enter you name, and password (the password must be entered twice) and then the name you want for your computer. Hit "forward" (The names on the screenshot are examples only!)


- Now there'll be a summary of the settings you chose. Take a minute to review it and if everything is correct hit "Install".



- Now Ubuntu will get to work. In most computers (depending on it's performance) the installation process takes only around 15-30 minutes. So go to the kitchen for a glass of milk and some cookies, you're earned them!


- Once installed hit the "Reboot Now" button.



-When Ubuntu prompts you to remove the disc, do so. And then close the disc tray, if any, and hit "Enter"

- Once the computer restarts, if everything went correctly and smoothly, you should see the User Login screen (this screen can be customized greatly, more about this on a later post). Enter the username you set on the installation process and your password.



- And ta-da! Ubuntu will load and take you to the desktop you once knew and loved during the Live CD (but without the "Install" and "Examples" icons). Now take out your list of needed fixes and downloads and start working. You'll get a very warm and fuzzy feeling once you get everything working smoothly! Feel free to post any questions or requests on the comments' section of this post. I'll try my best to help! Remember, I can help you in spanish too!



NOTE: I took the screenshots from another website. It won't happen again :-)! From now on my posts will have original screenshots. It's kinda hard to grab screenshots while installing Ubuntu, that's why I googled them.
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