And whats to stop you copying your live site onto the local install? I didn't mean a new install.
A live install is not hugely different then a local one..
Upgrading my site was no different local and live.
A web server is still essentially a PC with an operating system... so unless your typing on a carrot then i'd guess you have a PC infront of you to.
If you don't want to list the specs for 3 sites, then how about 1 site, perhaps work on one problem at a time..
Im not talking about plugin trouble.
Maybe not, but have you actually tried disabling them to see if this helps?
I've only one found problem with 2.8 since updating, and that's been older plugins that rely on deprecated functions. There's also some minor errors appearing in the error logs, but these are only minor Jquery related ones..
You can test and test and test for years. But nothing is for sure till you put it on a live site.
Nothing is ever guaranteed no... the only problem i've ever encountered between a local install and a live one was a path issue. The paths differed on the live site, however this particular server was a Virtual Private server running under Fedora that didn't use anything friendly like Cpanel, so it did require lots of work.... so little issues like that (in my mind) were to be expected, fortunately it wasn't my server and the person running the server knew his Linux stuff.. :)
Problems are about detective work sometimes, you have to start somewhere, then work your way through it.... process of elimination..
Of course if you're hoping the next update will magically fix everything i'll keep my fingers crossed for you .. ;)