Ubuntu: Up and Running

Upgrading to New Releases

Ubuntu 9.10 was the most current release when this book went to print, but due to the six-month upgrade cycle, Ubuntu 10.04 was already on the horizon and 10.10 was being planned. With such a release cycle, it’s important that you know how you can upgrade Ubuntu to take advantage of new and better features, and to keep your computer secure.

Before upgrading, though, it is always a good idea to acquaint yourself with everything that’s new in the upgrade by visiting the following URL:

http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes

Click the More » link next to the release for full details. That way there shouldn’t be any major surprises.

Note

By participating in the Alpha and Beta tests, I was able to include in this book the new features and improvements the Ubuntu 10.04 release offers. In fact, the Beta is so good that we considered putting a copy on the companion DVD. However, in the end we agreed that beta tests are just that: tests, and unforeseen bugs might show up that this book couldn’t help you with—so we dropped that idea. Therefore this section shows you how to upgrade over the Internet to the fully tested, final release of Ubuntu 10.04. The same procedure will let you upgrade to all other future versions, too.

Installing from CD

There are two ways that you can upgrade your installation of Ubuntu. First, you can download the latest ISO file, burn it to CD, and perform a fresh installation. The download locations you need are listed in the section Downloading ...