Ubuntu 10.4

I had been putting off upgrading my Ubuntu install...because every time there is a major upgrade...I spend weeks fixing things.

But in this case my old Ubuntu install was really old (8.10?), running out of room, and having difficulties.

Mostly I delayed the upgrade because I was using VM and doing my office work on that.

Well my VM was acting poorly...out of disk space (virtual expanding drive?)...so I moved the applications I was using to a different machine running Win7 (VM was an XP install).

Anywho, I had an extra 500GB sata drive lying around...

Actually installing Ubuntu 10.4 was mostly straight forward, but the disk manager still needed help...I had to boot into the Ubuntu on a disk, run the disk manager to see the new blank drive I installed, then reboot to the installer.

Every time I change or install an OS, I start with a new drive, and keep the old drive plugged into a USB adapter to transfer...or reboot if necessary.

Well once again it was necessary. I use Evolution for email and calendar. I use Firefox for web browsing. I don't like starting from scratch...I just want to move stuff over to the new computer.

Copying all my settings etc into Firefox was easy...there is an Add-on called FEBE that backs up all your Firefox stuff, extensions, themes, bookmarks, etc. Just install it on the old Firefox, run it....then install that extension (FEBE) on the new Firefox, and do the restore.

It isn't quite that simple...but simple enough. The FEBE website, softwarebychuck.com has all the tutorials you need.

Now Evolution was a completely different deal...and I will make it a separate topic.

Back to Ubuntu 10.4

I will say that video card and monitor support is superior to the old Ubuntu I was running. An icon at the top of the screen lets you adjust your settings...including running multiple monitors, choosing if mirrored or expanded view...and resolution.

It also boots much faster than the older version. However the initial install required literally hours of upgrades before it was done...I thought it had crashed it was such a slow process.

But overall, worth the effort to upgrade.

...next Evolution...