Hello Jeff!   
      
   Sunday September 23 2018 15:43, you wrote to me:   
      
    > Hello Vince,   
      
    >>> So, I  have resisted upgrading Ubuntu Linux on the BBBS machine   
    >>> which currently runs Ubuntu 16.10.   
      
    >> Test one's that have a LTS policy and releases.   
      
    > That was my thought also. Whatever my choice it would a Linux flavor   
    > with extended support.   
      
    >> The other in the main have a tendancy of upgrading every 6 - months   
    >> which is a right royal pain to deal with as 9 times out of 10   
    >> upgrades do not work out as planned (the disto people or users).   
      
    > True... And then they sometimes offer changes (Improvements?) that one   
    > sees as downgrade.   
      
    >> Ubuntu is one but CentOS may be another and no doubt there are   
    >> others. The LTS distros are supported for a five year cycle with a   
    >> upgrade facility for the next version of the LTS so should work well   
    >> BUT do not upgrade for a few months after release - let other work   
    >> the bugs out.   
      
    > Right now I am either looking at staying with (Actually upgrading to   
    > the current LTS version of Ubuntu) or installing CentOS on a spare PC   
    > of similar hardware and testing it prior to running/restoring BBBS   
    > onto t he machine.   
      
    > At the moment I use Linux Mint on the PC that I do my daily desktop   
    > PC'ing.   
      
      
   My main system has a SSD of 250GB -ish so have a number of partitions set up    
   as   
   a gpt group.   
      
   Here I run (very some times) other distros over my current Mageia v6 such as   
   cetos PCLinux and some other that I have forgotten but all cause me grief so   
   apart for trying a update for each and a quick test to see of mbse etc works   
   before moving to the next one in the list I stick to the MGA one.   
      
   Hmm, reminds me that I did do a reboot after the third kernel upgrade (no   
   didn't bother with the others) but was going on a 2 week holiday to Canada so   
   gave the system a early birthday treat a few days before going - JIC.   
      
   Yes it stayed up the whole period but then I did not expect anything else.   
      
   My BBS system and all other user s/w is installed at /home/abc instead of say   
   /opt (mbse) that way I can swap to another distro with the minimum of issues   
   having made sure that all distros use the same guds for all users. Mind you   
   that seems to be the standard these days that all user created accounts start   
   from 1000 (as against 500),so easy to do.   
      
   Needless to say all VM's are recreated on an upgrade as needed as each server   
   user get a fresh VM during their call/poll/link whatever and the VMs get   
   updated during the course of a day as needed if new files come in. It is quick   
   enough using the SSD. Just have to ensure that fstrim is run afterwards.   
      
      
   Vince   
      
   --- Mageia Linux v6 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.9/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715   
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)