differences between upgrade and fresh installation

Hi,

I made some weeks ago a fresh installation with xubuntu 9.10 on one partition.
On a second partion I installed 8.04 und upgraded to 9.10. So far so good, I had no crashes etc., but some differences between the installed packages, e.g. kernel-generic-pae (fresh installation) contra kernel-generic (upgrade-path).

So I tried a research on "should I upgrade or make a fresh installation". I found 1000 statements (ok, that's not true), and a result of about 50:50 between "install!" and "upgrade!".

Therefore I give you two files just for examination. The "upgrade-path" has been de-orphaned, and there are some manuall installation on the other "fresh installed" side, but nevertheless the question remains: why are there a bunch of packages on the upgrade path, that are not part of the fresh installation?

Of course you can produce such lists on your own, but I am just a bit confused: You do not need to explain me, please just make sure that both installation ways as described lead to the same versions on one hard-disc (well, that's what I would expect at least).

ProblemType: Bug
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: wilhem 16414 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC1: wilhem 16414 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'SB'/'HDA ATI SB at 0xfe024000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC889A'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0885,1458a002,00100101'
   Controls : 40
   Simple ctrls : 22
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x4710x308'/'USB Device 0x471:0x308 at usb-0000:00:12.0-1, full speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB0471:0308'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 3
   Mono: Capture 0 [0%] [26.00dB] [on]
Card2.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:2 'HDMI'/'HDA ATI HDMI at 0xfdffc000 irq 19'
   Mixer name : 'ATI RS690/780 HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:1002791a,00791a00,00100000'
   Controls : 4
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card2.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'IEC958',0
   Capabilities: pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Mono: Playback [off]
Date: Tue Mar 9 00:30:21 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=3d029a8d-853f-4439-bde6-664d28ab08c6
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Alpha i386 (20100224.1)
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
MachineType: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. GA-MA78G-DS3H
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-16-generic-pae 2.6.32-16.24
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-16-generic-pae root=/dev/sda6
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_DE.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-16.24-generic-pae
Regression: No
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.32
Reproducible: Yes
RfKill:

SourcePackage: linux
TestedUpstream: Yes
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-16-generic-pae i686
dmi.bios.date: 06/23/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: Award Software International, Inc.
dmi.bios.version: FC
dmi.board.name: GA-MA78G-DS3H
dmi.board.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.board.version: x.x
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAwardSoftwareInternational,Inc.:bvrFC:bd06/23/2009:svnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnGA-MA78G-DS3H:pvr:rvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:rnGA-MA78G-DS3H:rvrx.x:cvnGigabyteTechnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvr:
dmi.product.name: GA-MA78G-DS3H
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.