In-place upgrade to ns7 is available since 2018 and marked stable since 2020, long before ns6 EOL.
A migration path like backup/restore is a requirement for NS8 too. In-place upgrade sounds more like a “nice to have”. In the end, it is the same approach we applied from 6 to 7: we can’t promise in-place until we decide where NS8 is going.
I did my first migration 6->7 in 2017 and my last migration 6->7 in 2019… 
Since then only new installs of NS7…
My 2 cents
Andy
I can assure you I realize very well that a clean migration probably wouldn’t be possible. Well nothing is impossible however it would come with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. So my guess is, if they would go with something like Debian or whatever that isn’t Red Hat or close to CentOS, it would most likely need a clean install, start from scratch. For some this may not be a very big issue if you can just replicate everything while keeping your current system up, granted that all packages have been ported and functional, etc.
As for OpenSuse, well, as someone stated for Ubuntu which is based on Debian, Ubuntu is owned by a company. Isn’t OpenSUSE owned by SUSE Software Solutions? In which case, wouldn’t we be facing the same issues as with Ubuntu, depending on a company? If the idea is to be more independent then something like Debian would make more sense perhaps.
Sure, but it will fail if you have anything installed that is not considered ‘official’.
I think the most reliable way is still doing a vanilla NS7 install and recreate users and restore data.
btw, don’t you just love to have a virtualized environment so you can just create a new VM, sync data with the ‘old’ VM. Create a new virtual server without the need to format or delete the old virtual server.
not sure about the link between OpenSUSE and SUSE if it is more like CentOS or Fedora and RedHat relation and/or more like Ubuntu and Canonical but it said SUSE sponsor OpenSUSE. SUSE as been bought by EQT Partners firm in 2018 and became the 3rd most profitable Open Source Project (after RedHat and Canonical if I remember well), since then they focus on K8 like RedHat.
I don’t know if I mentionned Independent, but if yes, my meaning what more OS independent, more versatile, aka more Distro Agnostic (aka could work on Debian/Ubuntu/CentOS/OpenSUSE/Alpine/Arch Linux/…)
not sure about the link between OpenSUSE and SUSE if it is more like CentOS or Fedora and RedHat relation and/or more like Ubuntu and Canonical but it said SUSE sponsor OpenSUSE. SUSE as been bought by EQT Partners firm in 2018 and became the 3rd most profitable Open Source Project (after RedHat and Canonical if I remember well), since then they focus on K8 like RedHat.
Perhaps having to reinstall everything was very painful for me, my team and our customer when Debian decided to adopt SystemD 
CentOS was maintained by Red Hat was it not? OpenSuse maintained by Suse again in part maybe with contributions from the outside. What happens if Suse decides let go of that project? Wouldn’t we find ourselves in the same boat?
To manage a container what is better than another container, portainer is under heavy development and it is a reference, maybe not the best but it is a challenger.
Why did you need dnf
Salutatous, (Hello2all),
So actually we do not know on wich OS will Nethserver be based.
Does the developers/board whatever have somehow a deadline to take a decision ?
Because for my parts i have a big one who’s named “Customers”.
I do not have so much, but I know it gonna be a big move for them when i’ll tell that i have to change their IS and rebuild it from scratch.
I do not even know how to do that as most of them have only ONE small server (small companies).
I know they gonna ask me to manage the changes when they will not be on duty, eg, during holidays : July/August in France. So i must inform them a looong time before the work have to be done.
So 1.) when will we certain to know on wich OS Nethserver will run for the next 10 years 
And 2.) Do we will have a “migration” guideline/procedure whatever ?
Thank you & Happy New Year.
Rémy.
Salutatous Remy,
(long time no see)
To me this sounds (reads) a bit harsh. That is if you realize Rhel/CentOS “dropped the bomb” Centos Linux 8 will be supported until end 2021 (instead of 2029) just a mouth ago.
This discussion taking place is a strong commitment from Nethesis to work with the community and there for it’s customers in the first place. 
(Note I’m just a community member like you)
Yes, i’m sorry,
I mean & have said “does the developers told themselves “we need a deadline to take the decision” somewhere ?”
Thanks to work with the community anyway, I really love the way Nethesis do the job.
Excuse my lack of english i do not want to be rude I miss vocabulary and style.
Sorry from my side to understand you wrong. 
@Remy This really isn’t an easy change and you do have to take into consideration your current customers first and foremost. I’m sure what ever decision you all make it will be for the best of your customers and then the community. As long as this community doesn’t go away!! That can’t happen!!
Très beau travail à vous et toute votre équipe et bon courage! Et un gros merci à toute la communauté Nethserver.
because I was too lazy and simply cut and past it 
The deadline is already known: the end of support of CentOS 7. But i’m feeling confident that something new will be seen at least one year before.
Deburring, polishing ad refining take time…
another reason is the really old version of docker IIUC
docker x86_64 2:1.13.1-203.git0be3e21.el7.centos ce-extras 18 M
docker-client x86_64 2:1.13.1-203.git0be3e21.el7.centos ce-extras 3.9 M
docker-common x86_64 2:1.13.1-203.git0be3e21.el7.centos ce-extras 100 k
thank you sir for your time and your clear explanation
But @stephdl sorry, I don’t get the IIUC acronym
because it is possible to install Docker from their REPO and have a decent version of docker-ce
Here is the community speaking, but which direction the Nethserver teams are talking about, going nuts with Gentoo or simply building Ansible Playbook ?
Looked into this idea a little bit and started with OPNsence, which has an extensive api:
https://docs.opnsense.org/development/api.html
so yes, just from this one query it is possible.
Looking further into the internals of OPNsence found something else remarkable,
at least I had never heard of it.
An other framework for creating templates which is actively developed: Jinja
https://jinja.palletsprojects.com/en/master/intro/
Not suggesting e-smith does not a good job, just interesting how others cope with this. 
Hi folks,
if Nethserver has to change the distribution completely away from RHEL/CentOS/…, could Proxmox be an option?
Please forgive me my ignorance, I dont know how much work this would be…