Upgrading distributions

[Dswissmiss]

I was recently reading about the soon to be released debian 3.1 and people commenting on whether they would upgrade or not. If a installed system runs well on a computer, with all hardware detected and all, why would you want to upgrade to the newer version, say from SuSe 8.1 to 9, or Mandrake 9 to 10? Are there features on a distribution that cannot be upgraded through apt-get or rpm's?
So basically, couldn't a system which was installed 3 years ago look exactly the same as a brand new one, if it was periodically upgraded through apt-get or any other way?

Thank you
Dswissmiss

[aym]

Yes, if you download all updates, including kernel updates, your system will be up to date.

Security updates are the most important ones, especially if you are running a server of some sort.

[Dswissmiss]

Thanx.
I always read about "recompiling kernels"... so just apt-get kernel would't work right? Do you know of any good websites that go through it step by step?

[aym]

I've never used Debian before, but in RPM based distros, you need to install a RPM for the new kernel.

I googled for your question and found this, so yes, you only need to apt-get the new kernel.

EDIT:
Just noticed your other question, a general guide on how to compile a new kernel can be found here:
http://www.digitalhermit.com/~kwan/kernel.html

Good luck