Clarity Requested: Process of upgrading from build 8.1.x to 8.2.x

Clarity Requested: Process of upgrading from build 8.1.x to 8.2.x

We are ready to do a test upgrade from 8.1.0 build 8121 to 8.2 Build 8203; and in looking through the previous posts there appears to be discussions about having to move from MySQL to PostgrSQL.  And other steps about going up to 8200 first and then upgrading a second time to the latest release.
 
REQUEST: Can you reply back with the proper upgrade process as there seemed to be some failures along the way and a central post on best practices would be great. (And I'm sure others will benefit.)
 
2nd REQUEST: Is there still issued with using Internet Explorer 9 with the update?  Even in compability mode?
 
Thanks!
 
-Les

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