Common /home Across Distro Versions

[Tom Metro]

jbk wrote:
> I have allocated distinct partitions that I rotate between distro
> versions. So in the past I would carefully recreate each user in the
> new version paying attention to matching each UID and GID exactly,
> copy  the users home to the new home preserving date and ownership of
> files. 
>
> This is a cumbersome and time consuming process.

Do you find that things break frequently enough to necessitate this? 
Your approach doesn't seem unusual for Fedora users, and I wonder why. 
On machines where I run Debian and Ubuntu, I install when the hardware 
is first deployed, and then do updates from that point forward for the 
life of the hardware.


> The Fedora Distro is installed along with a virtual machine tailored
> to each of the users needs.
> ...I want to make sure that most things work.

Given that you are using a VM, can't you archive the current F10 VM for 
each user, then update it to F11 and F12, and simply roll back to the 
F10 version if a problem is encountered?

Updating the host is more risky, as it'll impact the ability to run the 
VM guests, but it should also be a simpler setup with fewer dependencies 
on things like X that would be more prone to breakage across updates. 
Using a long-term OS like RHEL or CentOS might be a better choice for 
the host.

  -Tom

-- 
Tom Metro
Venture Logic, Newton, MA, USA
"Enterprise solutions through open source."
Professional Profile: http://tmetro.venturelogic.com/