[ale] Red Hat upgrades?

[Wolf Halton]

On 07/05/2011 09:17 AM, James Sumners wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 3:34 PM, James Sumners<james.sumners at gmail.com>  wrote:
>> On Fri, Jul 1, 2011 at 3:29 PM, Geoffrey Myers
>> <lists at serioustechnology.com>  wrote:
>>> I had RHEL 5.5 running and contacted RH to find out how to upgrade.  I
>>> was told you couldn't do an upgrade from 5 to 6, it had to be a new
>>> install.  Could be I was told wrong, but that is what I was told and
>>> didn't pursue the matter further.
>> http://docs.redhat.com/docs/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/6/html/Installation_Guide/sn-upgrading-system-x86.html
>
> I contacted them myself when the DVD kept refusing to find the
> installed OS. Here is the response:
>
> "An upgrade from RHEL 4.9 to RHEL 5.6 is not happening due to the fact
> that there is a change in Major number between the 2 releases.
>
> Inserting a DVD of RHEL 5.6 would provide you an option to Upgrade if
> your Operating system were to be : RHEL 5.5.
> This is possible because there is just a minor change in these versions.
>
> RHEL 5.5 ==>  RHEL 5.6 : Using RHEL 5.6 DVD : Up-gradable
> RHEL 4.9 ==>  RHEL 5.6 : Using RHEL 5.6 DVD : Not Up-gradable
>
> Also,
>
> RHEL 4.9 ==>  RHEL 5.0 : Using RHEL 5.0 DVD : Not Up-gradable.
>
> Every Major Release for example 4.x, 5.x, 6.x can be upgraded within
> its range of minor releases i.e: 0-9.
> However, to upgrade from a 4.x ==>  5.x, a fresh installation is needed
> due to a platform change."
>
>
Red Hat wants their users to update sequentially.  Doesn't every other 
distro do something similar?
Though I will admit that Ubuntu allows upgrade from LTS release to LTS 
release (which skips a couple).