Noob & Update (or not)

[Zen Mod]

Hi, I'm new here and just replaced Kubuntu with Mint. So far, so good, no complaints or problems, only one question regarding update.
I downloaded latest "main" instalation .iso image, burned it, installed Mint, and being online via router (otherwise would have to suffer withmission impossible called MS pptp AKA VPN) got notice that 40 updates are waiting for me. Ok, do it, then... Restarted, (bad habit from being over ten years attached to MS products <grin>) ... and what now? Explore the package, and suddenly, the small lock in the bottom righthand side tells me that I have 159 recommended software updates available. What now? Do I update and that's it, or will 378 updates wait for me tomorrow morning? For now, I'll let those updates hang in the hyperspace and wait until I get reassured that everything that works now won't miserably crash and burn as it did a couple of times when I actually did believe that I should update my KDE and it went down, down, down...

[proxima_centauri]

That should be it for the time being. After that, if you update regularly, you shouldn't have more than couple updates to install at a time.

[Zen Mod]

So, what you suggest (BTW, thanks for responding) is that I should just "go with the flow" and hopefully it will all be ok once I turn my machine on, right? Hmm... Well, in worst case I still have the install CD and it didn't take forever to install it Fortunately, I had my share of lost data and whatever I do, I save and make a backup on my 2.5" USB HDD... (as some say, Jesus Saves, but he also makes backups - hopefully, no one will find this to be offensive because it was never my intention, just remembered a bumper sticker...)

[proxima_centauri]

I'd personally install the updates. They should all be tested and stable packages if you haven't enabled any testing repo's. If you're worried about re-installations than I also suggest creating a separate /home partition, that way you can reinstall whatever you want and keep your /home folder/settings intact.

[lancern]

Well if you have alrdy installed your video card drivers you may want to read this post first
before you install the updates..

viewtopic.php?f=109&t=10487

[Zen Mod]

I did allow the update and since I still have the Ubuntu (quite customized because it was installed from minimalcd and from there all via net, step by step avoiding any extra apps) I have no special fears about remaining stranded. Mint got to my Acer Extensa 5220 instead of Kubuntu and with this machine I had no problems with the hardware. The only problems happened when I tried to update KDE (that happened with OpenSuse, Fedora and Kubuntu) so it's a KDE problem, not a Linux/Debian/Ubuntu issue or a problem with graphic card drivers. The fact is that my Mint is in mint condition, still no complaints. So, as far as I can tell, if there's no special piece of hardware in the machine, allowing the system to get updated is completely safe. Now I'd like to ask a question but I'll move it to a more appropriate forum (or forum section, whatever it's called these days)

thanks to everyone who helped or kept his/her fingers crossed.