off topic but will we be able to upgrade to 10 from 9 or will it be new hw again? (I know I could use a backup but 9.x usb backup is broke) I use affa and a usb drive but the usb bit hasn't worked for a bit due to a power failure during backup
Technically, yes. Practically, no idea yet.
The 5-6 upgrade 'clean install' was due to decisions taken by RHEL regarding rpms.
Whether it is possible to use the 6-7 'upgrade' tool in conjunction with SME software remains to be seen.
At the minute v10 is very much Alpha and a lot of other stuff needs to be fixed first.