> The upgrade mechanism from 7.9 to 8.0 is still gloriously simple, and exactly the same as it has been for many years

The upgrade mechanism on a typical Linux distribution is _even more_ gloriously simple, and exactly the same as it has been for many years.

  # Fedora/RHEL
  $ sudo dnf upgrade -y

  # Debian/Ubuntu
  $ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

  # Arch Linux
  $ sudo pacman -Syu

The false distinction between the OS packages and user local (/usr/local) packages during upgrade causes much unneeded complexity. FreeBSD is making this go away which is welcome.

▲ enriquto an hour ago | parent | next [-]

    # Debian/Ubuntu
    $ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

But this is equivalent to syspatch && pkg_add -u , this does not upgrade the computer from one version of the OS to the next.

	▲	sidkshatriya 5 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		For a rolling release like Arch Linux you just always use pacman -Syu. But yes you are correct, if you want to upgrade a Ubuntu distribution like 26.04 you do need to issue a command like `sudo apt dist-upgrade` which is admittedly an additional command. But then you could run 26.04 for many years. In OpenBSD anytime the base system/kernel is upgraded for a security fix or point release you need to do a slightly more complex dance.

▲ Perz1val 26 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

I'm pretty sure it takes more to move debian 11 to debian 12 and Arch doesn't even have versions