This tutorial explains how to upgrade from Mint 17.3 to Mint 18, saving the need to install from scratch. Your personal profile will be preserved. After the upgrade, you're running Mint 18. Not sure what your second question means.
I presume he things upgrades in Linux are equal to those in Windows? Like the Windows 10 Free Upgrade case, where it should only last for one year. I think he asked if it will be possible to do this upgrade in the future, in which case the answer is Yes.
Not quite but close. Re-installing OS in stead of upgrading is something the super intelligent world strange character Sheldon from the television series The Bing Bang Theory likes to do. Allowing a version update in stead of re-install seems like an Windows Upgrade to X10 When the upgrade succeeded succesfully, you had an updated OS, but with all your settings, programs profile and data from the previous. Is it likely that Mint will also offer an upgrade from 18 to 19, making this upgrade from 17 to 18 is not a one off, but the beginning of a series (and in my opinion a breakthrough updating in stead of re-installing). Thanks
Yes, indeed. Some distros are more rolling than others, you just need to update regularly. You don't need to reinstall. Amarildojr has a much better knowledge than me about these. I think Debian is already better than Ubuntu in this respect.
Yes. For all I remember, Linux distros have been doing that since I began using them. In fact, I can't think of one distro that actually requires(d) the user to install from scratch. So don't worry, you will be able to upgrade your Mint/Ubuntu/Debian/etc once a new one comes out.
Okay, thanks When I worked in IT and setup one of the first interactive system (yep 30 years ago). The mainframe had to connect to a Xenix (Microsoft Unix) machine. When setting up the communication and database integration (well simple hierarchical and vector data bases at that time) between them, I started to dislike the caps sensitivity of the unix commands. So in my mind I still have Unics-Unix-Linux associated with very good products, but very unfriendly to setup. Guess my last experience (with Xubuntu) proved those head aches were from the past, now I seem to be wrong with this rolling update feature also. To be frank, because a distro comes with so much pre-installed software it is easier to setup for a home user than Windows. Kees
