How often do you reinstall Ubuntu-Mate? I used to do it apporx. once a year or less.
Now there was and probably is some irrelevant activity. How can I secure an Ubuntu-MAte OS,
if there is ufw enabled and all 65535 ports are closed, and I check with clamscan and ClamTk for malware, and also with chkrootkit and something other?
Each LTS release. Well, not reinstall but upgrade, actually.
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Same. I gave up experimenting and now stick to LTS.
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Same for me.
Also, to keep my system secure, I avoid doing stupid things. I'm not too paranoid about it.
As a quality assurance tester, I can't just run the LTS releases -- I use interim releases as well, and test-run alphas, betas, and even pre-alphas.
However, I do avoid installing pre-alphas and other unstable releases (even pre-alphas of LTS releases, like the current development version of Ubuntu MATE, 22.04), and instead run them live from a 4 GB USB flash drive I keep around for the purpose. Mostly, I hate going through the time-consuming process of installation, and only install (or upgrade to a new release) when said release is, well, actually released.
In my opinion, it's not even a bad thing that I use interim releases. I learned the hard way that all releases of Ubuntu (and derivatives) can be unstable. Ubuntu 8.04 and 10.04 (LTS releases) weren't so bad, but neither was, for example, 9.10 (an interim release); in fact, I found 9.10 to be more robust than 10.04 for the things I was using it for. 16.04 was certainly a reminder that LTS releases still don't come with a warranty, and 20.04 was a nightmare (IMHO), so I figure now that unless you have a support contract with Canonical, you're kind of on your own no matter what.
Just my two cents.
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I replace PCs more often than reinstall my Ubuntu Mate installation.
Current install began in 2016 as 15.10, then it was upgraded to 16.04 LTS, then I sat on it until next LTS which was 18.04, which then was upgraded to 20.10 non LTS (for new Ryzen support) and I'm now on 21.10 upgrading every 6 months. Original installation begun on Thinkpad X230, then it was moved to desktop PC, then hardware of that PC was upgraded in the end of 2020. In mean time couple SSDs has been replaced in each machine for bigger and/or faster versions. So actually original installation is now on 2 separate machines (laptop and PC). Only recently I decided to try Manjaro on laptop but I still have SSD with Mate, so if I will end up not liking Manjaro I will swap back to Ubuntu.
TLDR; I don't re-install I just upgrade.
I agree, I also install each new LTS release, but I prefer to do clean installs. Backup should be the same in either case, you never know what can go wrong in an upgrade.
I only reinstall if/when it crashes. With 20.04, I decided to stick with LTS releases.
Mine is complicated. After I get the full system working I make a backup either with Clonezilla or with a Windows program called R-Drive running from a pendrive and both of them save the image of the full disk (an ssd of 120gb partitioned in Home and / ) on a second hdd .Then I save selections with synaptic to get a list of installed programs to be reinstalled in a future.
To test newer versions I use the expert system not formatting the home to keep configurations and use "read selections" and synaptic does the job and install almost all programs again.
The R-drive allows to use different versions for testing cloning the hdd. Now I'm testing UM 22,.04 but I cannot find some libraries and packages necessary for photo stacking, I supose they will be placed in repositories soon.
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