I've mentioned before how there really isn't such a thing as doing an "upgrade" installation with Linux. No matter what they call it, it's just not a complete as when you do a Windows upgrade. And that, my friends, is faint praise to Microsoft because they do a pretty bad job of it. So if you try an upgrade installation of Linux (regardless of the distribution), you will probably have many problems.
Just to try it, I decided to do an upgrade installation of Xandros. Although things looked pretty good after the install, I'm beginning to run into problems.
First, in my old configuration, I had purchased and installed CrossOver Offce Professional directly from Codeweavers because they had a more recent version than Xandros (as an aside, do not expect to get the more recent versions of software from Xandros, even when you pay money for it). After the upgrade, as far as I can tell, Crossover Office Standard has taken over. I do not know what happended to my purchased copy. In addition, I had to reconfigure the Launch menu because none of my Windows applications showed up except, strangely enough, Lotus Notes. So, I had to add Excel, Word, Access, and PowerPoint to the menu.
Secondly, my problems with Xandros XN are growing. If I try to install certain files from the Xandros supported repository, I get error messages saying some files did not download. Well, no kidding. I thought that's what XN was for. I mean, I just upgraded this installation. Why am I having these XN problems? If I try to add the unsupported Debian resposity, I get a screen full of errors like:
Couldn't stat source package list
http://xnv4.xandros.com xandros4.0-xn/contrib Packages
(/var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_contrib_binary-i386_Packages)
- stat (2 No such file or directory)
Couldn't stat source package list http://xnv4.xandros.com
xandros4.0-xn/contrib Packages
(/var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_contrib_binary-i386_Packages)
- stat (2 No such file or directory)
Unable to parse package file
/var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_main_binary-i386_Release
(1)
Problem opening
/var/lib/apt/lists/xnv4.xandros.com_4.0_pkg_dists_xandros4.0-xn_non-free_binary-i386_Packages
The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
I gave up and wiped the disk to do a regular install. That seems to have made a a positive difference. At least, I can now download supported files.
I'm still undecided whether to recommend this distribution since every other distribution also has problems when upgrading. Still, I have to wonder when things will get better.
Aloha!
