Linux Mint project lead Clem Lefebvre recently announced that the team has been developing upgrade tools to help users upgrade to newer versions more easily. At present, if users need to upgrade, they need to do it through terminal commands, which is not friendly to novices. Users are simply advised to do a clean install to make sure nothing goes wrong during the upgrade process.
With the new upgrade tool, users will interact with a fully graphical program that checks that everything is ready to start the upgrade, such as enough storage space and whether you have AC power connected. Plus, it keeps your updated images and custom repositories where possible so you don’t have to fiddle around. If there are any issues with orphaned packages or with your repository, you will be notified and there will be a fix button to fix them.
The upgrade tool will first be available to users who wish to move to LMDE 5 before the end of the life of LMDE 4 in August. It will also be available to those using Linux Mint 20.3 to upgrade to Linux Mint 21 “Vanessa”. The plan is to release the tool as soon as possible, but it is still considered an alpha product. It will go through a brief beta phase before being upgraded to general availability.