Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu every 6 months like clockwork. Each version is supported for 18 months, except for the Long Term Support version. These releases are supported for 3 years. Every 2 years, an LTS version is released instead of a standard release. This raises a question.

Should I upgrade every 6 months, or just wait for the LTS to come along every 2 years and upgrade to it?

We have chosen to stay on the LTS upgrade path. It would be a hassle to upgrade every 6 months. These aren’t major changes we’re talking about here, but there are changes that can affect things. It’s simpler to just avoid all that and stick with an Ubuntu release that works just fine. Besides, even if you wait for 2 years, you still won’t ever have an operating system that’s older than 24 months. I can live with that. Ubuntu.com explains all of this here.

So, do you upgrade Ubuntu every 6 months?? Are you still using XP??

Usually I install Xubuntu afresh when a new release arrives. This time along, though, I felt like upgrading from Xubuntu 8.04 to Xubuntu 8.10.

The first thing to consider is that Xubuntu 8.04 is a “Long Term Support” release, meaning that it’ll receive security updates for a longer period of time than normal releases. Thus, people using this version won’t need to upgrade Xubuntu every six months when a new version is released. The consequence is that you will not be notified of a new normal release when it arrives.

In order to be able to start the upgrade process, you’ll need to start the Software Sources application from Applications->System. In that application, under the Updates tab, you can select which new distribution releases you want to be notified of at the bottom. By default, this is set to Long term support releases only, but to upgrade to Xubuntu 8.10 you’ll want to set this to Normal releases.

With that set, when you start the Update Manager (Applications->System), you will be notified that a new distribution release is available. To start the upgrade process, just click the Upgrade button on top.

This will then pop up a screen containing the release notes of the new release, which unfortunately are Ubuntu-specific.

After confirming that you want to upgrade, Xubuntu will download an upgrade tool. It will start preparing the upgrade and will update your software sources to make sure you will be downloading software for the newer version. No need to worry though: if you press Cancel, the original configuration will be restored and any other edits the tool might have made will be reverted.

When information has been gathered about the upgrade, a new confirmation window will appear providing an overview of what is going to be done and giving you another chance to back off if you got scared. It also advises you to close all open applications to prevent loss of data – wise words indeed.

Of course, it is always recommended to make a backup of important documents and settings before you upgrade.

Before the upgrade could continue, a window popped up informing me that the (proprietary) driver for my graphics card was no longer available in the new version, giving me another chance to abort the upgrade. I opted to continue and take the risk of losing my shiny desktop effects (due to needing to use the open source driver), but was relieved to find that they still worked after the upgrade – I did not even need to redo the steps to install Compiz in Xubuntu. That said, this does not mean I recommend you to ignore the warning – I have too little knowledge of graphics cards and their drivers to be giving sensible advise on that.

The upgrade tool will then start downloading the packages of the new version. This will take a while (essentially it’s downloading new versions of most of your applications in their entirety) – the final stage in which you will still have the option to cancel the upgrade. Isn’t that great?

With the packages downloaded, the tool will start installing them – from this point on there’s no going back!

During the installation of the new packages, you might get some questions about newer configuration files overwriting older ones (I got most of these at the end of this process, so you can make yourself some coffee while it’s installing the bulk of new packages ). In most cases, you’ll probably want the new one unless you recognise the file and know that you need the alterations you made to that file. Going with the default options is often sensible as well.

When the new versions are installed, the upgrade tool will try to remove as much cruft as it can find.

Finally, the upgrade process is almost complete – all it needs you to do to finish it off is to restart your computer and cross your fingers that the upgrade went smoothly and your system is still usable.

As said, I had been warned that the driver for my graphics card was no longer available, but luckily the Hardware Drivers application (Applications->System) pointed out that another proprietary driver was available that allowed me to enable Compiz again.

All in all, the upgrade was a generally a pleasing experience to me, and I hope and expect you will feel the same.

Ubuntu ist bekanntlich die einzige von einer Firma finanzierte GNU/Linux-Distribution, die nicht zwischen Community- und Firmenversion unterscheidet: Canonical finanziert Ubuntu, Punkt. Es gibt keine Ubuntu-Version speziell für Unternehmen, die proprietäre Zusatzfunktionen enthält oder speziell zertifiziert ist.

Red Hat und SUSE, die Platzhirsche im Enterprise-Bereich, verfolgen eine andere Strategie: Red Hat finanziert das Fedora-Projekt, das die Grundlage für das kommerzielle Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) bildet. SUSE verfährt mit OpenSuse und dem Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) ähnlich, auch wenn man sich hier mittlerweile um eine aktivere Community bemüht.

Das Problem bei dieser Taktik: gemeinnütige Organisationen, die auf professionelle Software angewiesen sind, aber mit ihrem Etat haushalten müssen, fallen hier möglicherweise unter den Tisch. Auch Debian ist hier nicht immer eine Alternative, wenn die Software relativ aktuell sein soll.

Die logische Konsequenz für Wikimedia, die Organisation hinter Wikipedia: nach und nach ein Wechsel der verwendeten Software von einem Mix aus verschiedensten Fedora- und Red-Hat-Varianten hin zu einem einheitlichen Ubuntu-Verband, natürlich mit Ubuntu 8.04 Hary Heron. Ein weiterer Vorteil von Ubuntu greift hier ebenfalls: da Ubuntu 8.04 eine Version mit Long Term Support (LTS) ist, besteht keine Gefahr, in einem Jahr veraltete Software einsetzen zu müssen. Die Resourcen für die bisherige Organisation der Server können nun anderweitig eingesetzt werden, eine einheitliche Struktur ist gut und hilfreich.

Das alles bedeutet nicht, dass das Ubuntu-Modell das einzig sinnvolle ist. Ob Canonical mit dieser Strategie wirklich Gewinne erwirtschaften kann, muss erst noch bewiesen werden. Auf alle Fälle ist das Ubuntu-Modell bisher ein gelungener Mix aus Debian und Red Hat: eine kostenlose Version für alle, egal ob Privatanwender oder Firmen, betreut von einer vertrauenswürdigen Firma.

Yesterday, exactly on April 24, 2008, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (codename: Hardy Heron) has just released. You probably have read this news many times on any other blogs out there, that’s why i won’t explain it any further. Just hit the sites!

Release Announcement:

• Indonesian Ubuntu Announcement
• Official Ubuntu Release Notes
  

Direct CD shipping for free:

• Ubuntu
• Edubuntu
• Kubuntu

Enjoy!!

Image courtesy of Wikipedia

Just a quick update to let you know the new Ubuntu release 8.04 (Hardy Heron) was just released. Hardy Heron is Ubuntu’s new LTS release which stands for Long Term Support. This means the desktop and server version get support for 3 and 5 years respectively.

The new version can be downloaded here.

Release notes can be found here.