[hsjqllzlfkf]

I'm not a Linux expert, I just want an OS that works well, and that's debian for me. Now, how do I upgrade? Just apt upgrade? Does it matter that I have i3wm instead of whatever the default is?

[zargon]

The upgrade instructions are in the release notes. It looks long but is pretty straightforward if you haven't installed software from outside the debian ecosystem or created a frankenstein mix of packages from non-stable, non-backports distro versions.

https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch...

[hsjqllzlfkf]

I've installed vs code by downloading a .Deb, not an apt repo. Does that count as "software Frankenstein"? Follow up question, what's the worse that can happen? Vscode will break, or might the os get corrupted?

[zargon]

The Frankenstein stuff usually involves mixing package repos. Software distributed as a stand-alone .deb is generally pretty self-contained. I personally usually leave them alone. If you're following along with the upgrade instructions, it will have you remove "obsolete" packages. "Obsolete" packages are those which are not referenced from any currently configured package repo. So manually installed packages will show up there. You can decide whether to keep them or not when reviewing that list.

[e12e]

> Now, how do I upgrade?

Read the documentation, follow it.

https://www.debian.org/releases/bookworm/amd64/release-notes...

> Just apt upgrade?

Mostly (please do RTFM):

  # update to latest point release of current system:
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt upgrade
  sudo apt full-upgrade
  sudo apt --purge autoremove

  # Update sources list
  sudo sed -i 's/bullseye/bookworm/g' /etc/apt/sources.list

  # upgrade to bookworm:
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt upgrade --without-new-pkgs
  sudo apt full-upgrade
  sudo apt --purge autoremove

> Does it matter that I have i3wm instead of whatever the default is?

Generally no, unless you've specified/use third party (or to a lesser extent "back port") software sources.