Should I upgrade to 20.1 or not?

[redx87]

Hi folks,

I've been running Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa 64bit for a year or so. It took me a while to get it the way I like it, but now it's runs perfect, and is so reliable, I just love it.

However, I now feel I might be lagging behind the times and think maybe I should be upgrading to 20.1 Ulyssa. What are the chances of an upgrade breaking my perfect 19.1? Apart from ongoing support is there a good reason why version 20.1 would be worth the risk of a full upgrade? And what is the safest way to upgrade?

Thanks.

[kc1di]

If you upgrade or not is pretty much a personal choice. 19.3 is supported until 2023 so there is not reason to upgrade if you comfortable with 19.x unless there is a hardware isssue that only the new release will solve. 20.1 is a good release and runs fine on my machine. But I did a fresh new install and did not try to uprade from 19.x. Weigh the advantages pros and cons and then choose. Also you may want to use the live session of 20.1 and see if everything work.s
good luck

[Hoser Rob]

I'd just dl an iso and test it in a live boot (USB if possible). Esp. if it's an older machine. The wee netbook I'm typing this on is on 19.2, which is the newest Mint release that works on it.

[Pierre]

the generic advice, is to Not Upgrade,
unless it's really necessary .. hardware wise,
or, you just "feel like" doing that upgrade.

some of us, will be in that latter category & did upgrade, for that weird reason . .


thus, if your Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa 64bit is working okay,
& particularly if you've got it working, in the way that you've like it,
then you should consider Not upgrading.

[Moem]

You might want to read the release notes for your favourite edition of Mint 20 and Mint 20.1. Clicking on the picture of each different desktop environment leads to an informative page, that has a link called 'what's new'. There you can read about the new features and see if any of them interest you.

[JesseRBassett]

I would at least upgrade to Mint 20. If you like it and want to proceed, then follow it by upgrading to 20.1. If however you feel 20.1 is not for you, I believe there is a way to go back to Mint 19....I think.

[redx87]

I will heed the good advice given and will check out Linux 20 on a live usb, and also do some more reading up on it. It is good to know an upgrade is not necessarily an imperative thing to do.

Many thanks to all, for taking the time to reply to my query.

[rickNS]

It is good to know an upgrade is not necessarily an imperative thing to do.

That's the beauty of the LTS releases of Mint. There is no rush to constantly upgrade.
FWIW, I'm still using Mint 19.0 on my main machine, (and a couple more) and have no immediate plan to upgrade them. I do however have a custom mint 20 ISO, that is installed on one machine, and ready to deploy to the others when the mood strikes me.

[Flemur]

And what is the safest way to upgrade?

First backup your current OS. (timeshift or whatever).
Then upgrade.
If you don't like the result, restore from the backup.

[absque fenestris]

And what is the safest way to upgrade?

Remove the SSD or hard disk, insert a new one and try it out ...

If you like the new system, you can leave the new SSD or HD in there - the old one is at hand, possibly in an external housing.

[Portreve]

In my particular case, I found that 20.0 is a necessary thing if I want to continue using my HP LaserJet P1102w but only because HP has not yet updated hplip to be compatible with 20.1.

However, about a little over a month ago I bought an HP Color LaserJet M255dw, which evidently does not use the hp-plugin, so I'm thinking it might work on 20.1. However, I haven't tried it yet.

I'm thinking about getting a 1TB M.2 drive to dual boot between Win10 and LM because I don't really want to keep physically swapping between two different drives and physically wearing out the MVNE socket on my motherboard. Well see.

[gmoney]

I would say yes for security reason a lot of the reason people get hacked is because they don't upgrade their software.

[JeffF73]

I would say yes for security reason a lot of the reason people get hacked is because they don't upgrade their software.

This primarily only falls under Windows software.

I upgraded from 19.3 to 20.1 and it went ok. I did end up having some minor issues that made me install fresh. There is always that chance thing's won't go so well so always back up your important data also taking a Timeshift backup and saving it to an external drive in case you do wish to go back the way you have everything now. You can reinstall the version you have now and then Timeshift Restore to that backup.

[Moem]

I would say yes for security reason a lot of the reason people get hacked is because they don't upgrade their software.

That reason doesn't apply here. Mint 19.x is after all still supported.

[Portreve]

Looks like HP finally updated hplip to be compatible with LM 20.1, so yep. Time to upgrade!

[aktarus]

Absolutely yes; I advise you to update.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

And what is the safest way to upgrade?

Remove the SSD or hard disk, insert a new one and try it out ...

If you like the new system, you can leave the new SSD or HD in there - the old one is at hand, possibly in an external housing.

@ red87 If you are comfortable fooling around in the "innards" of a computer, this is the best advice. If you don't like the new version or you have what you consider to be essential software or hardware that isn't compatible with the new system, reverting back is as simple as just putting the old drive back in. I've done this myself with excellent results.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

In my particular case, I found that 20.0 is a necessary thing if I want to continue using my HP LaserJet P1102w but only because HP has not yet updated hplip to be compatible with 20.1...

HP has been notorious for being slow to update their drivers for newer OSes, if they update at all. When I went from XP to Win 7 (pardon my blasphemy) a year or two after Win 7 had come out, I had to replace my otherwise good HP laser printer because HP had not updated the driver to work with Win 7. Adding injury to insult was HP DRMed chips in the toner carts with an expiration date to discourage refilling and it was impossible to find unexpired toner carts (expired carts would still work but one couldn't access the "tool box" to change settings).

On the flip side, when Win 10 (again, pardon my blasphemy), HP proudly announced that they would not be making drivers for new machines compatible with earlier OSes. That, along with bad tech support for an HP monitor, was the last straw for me and I won't buy HP products anymore.

I'm glad for you that HP did finally come out with a driver compatible with Mint 20.1.

[Portreve]

HP has been notorious for being slow to update their drivers for newer OSes, if they update at all. When I went from XP to Win 7 (pardon my blasphemy) a year or two after Win 7 had come out, I had to replace my otherwise good HP laser printer because HP had not updated the driver to work with Win 7. Adding injury to insult was HP DRMed chips in the toner carts with an expiration date to discourage refilling and it was impossible to find unexpired toner carts (expired carts would still work but one couldn't access the "tool box" to change settings).

On the flip side, when Win 10 (again, pardon my blasphemy), HP proudly announced that they would not be making drivers for new machines compatible with earlier OSes. That, along with bad tech support for an HP monitor, was the last straw for me and I won't buy HP products anymore.

I'm glad for you that HP did finally come out with a driver compatible with Mint 20.1.

This started when printer manufacturers got the "bright idea" to sell their printers for next to no profit in exchange for making all the profit off the supplies, effectively making the printers themselves "loss leaders". Then, as their customers got wise to this, they struck back against their customers by imposing all kinds of technological limits. This, of course, is effectively aided and abetted by society getting brainwashed (and probably some laws are involved here somewhere) into getting used to their own property not really being fully their own property. One might "own" a printer, but one does not own the intellectual property embedded therein. Well, at some point, one does have to ask "Do I own this thing or not?" It's a kind of fog, or maybe it's better thought of as some kind of grand gaslighting. Either way, that's where we're at.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

HP has been notorious for being slow to update their drivers for newer OSes, if they update at all. When I went from XP to Win 7 (pardon my blasphemy) a year or two after Win 7 had come out, I had to replace my otherwise good HP laser printer because HP had not updated the driver to work with Win 7. Adding injury to insult was HP DRMed chips in the toner carts with an expiration date to discourage refilling and it was impossible to find unexpired toner carts (expired carts would still work but one couldn't access the "tool box" to change settings).

On the flip side, when Win 10 (again, pardon my blasphemy), HP proudly announced that they would not be making drivers for new machines compatible with earlier OSes. That, along with bad tech support for an HP monitor, was the last straw for me and I won't buy HP products anymore.

I'm glad for you that HP did finally come out with a driver compatible with Mint 20.1.

This started when printer manufacturers got the "bright idea" to sell their printers for next to no profit in exchange for making all the profit off the supplies, effectively making the printers themselves "loss leaders". Then, as their customers got wise to this, they struck back against their customers by imposing all kinds of technological limits. This, of course, is effectively aided and abetted by society getting brainwashed (and probably some laws are involved here somewhere) into getting used to their own property not really being fully their own property. One might "own" a printer, but one does not own the intellectual property embedded therein. Well, at some point, one does have to ask "Do I own this thing or not?" It's a kind of fog, or maybe it's better thought of as some kind of grand gaslighting. Either way, that's where we're at.

You hit the head on the nail (or something like that)! I totally agree!