Upgrading to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS

Just upgraded my Dell Vostro 1500 to Ubuntu 10.04 LTS on Saturday (May 8, 2010) and so far I love it!

I made the upgrade because it is a LTS (long term support) release, but the main reason was, I was having issue with my wireless connecting to U-verse. I am happy to say, the upgrade has seem to resolve my wireless connectivity issues. I can go back to watching Bleach in my bedroom if my wife wants to watch something in the living room (I am on episode 263, 幽閉？！千本桜＆蛇尾丸).

Other benefits of the upgrade include:

Faster boot time (it seems to be faster to me)

Better looking default desktop and style

Sound working out of the box (even Flash sound in Chrome)

Over all I am loving the upgrade. Nice work Ubuntu team!

Upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10

For few years now, I've been running Ubuntu on my Dell Vostro 1500. For about a year I've been using Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Hardy Heron). I have never really had any issues but I would like to run a much newer version of Eclipse. You see I am running Eclipse 3.2 and I would like to run Eclipse 3.5 so I can use newer plugins like the Orc plugin. To be able to run Eclipse 3.5, I will need to upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).

Upgrading to Karmic Koala from Hardy Heron, will require an upgrade from 8.04 to 8.10, then from 8.10 to 9.04, and finally from 9.04 to 9.10. I believe this will take about 3 1/2 hours. I am thinking that since I am running on a Vostro 1500 on the upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04 (Intrepid Ibex to Jaunty Jackalope) I will most likely either have to enable my Wireless again through Backports or just use a cable.

Why would my Wireless stop working? Well you see the drivers I need to run my Wireless are not Open Source and as such I will need to use Non-Open Source; Backport; drivers to be able to use it. If you have only used Windows or OS X this most likely sounds odd, but what it comes down to is Copy Rights. Ubuntu does not install Backports, you have to enable them by saying that you will agree to their Copy Rights and then they will be downloaded and installed.

I did a quick Google search to make sure that I will not have an issues with Karmic Koala on my Vostro and what I found sounds like I will not have any. In fact it sounds like the Koala runs a lot better than Hardy. Even more import and the reason for the whole upgrade Eclipse 3.5 is in Synaptic.