What does ending Ubuntu 9.04 mean
 

No more support? Do I have to upgrade? What happens to all my info? Will I lose it? How much of a radical shift is this going to entail?

Thanks,

mocha

I believe no more support means that there will be no security updates backported to packages in 9.04. So you should probably upgrade (not sure how well Ubuntu upgrades, but it's built on Debian which has been pretty seamless for upgrades over the years) or reinstall a newer version. Either way, be sure to make good backups of all your data in case something goes wrong.

If you want security without having to upgrade very often, you should pick one of the LTS releases (10.04 is the latest) or use something like Debian stable branch.

This means that you will no longer get software updates, except for security related updates. Upgrading is your choice, I'm sure it is recommended.

Are you talking about info on your hard drive? If you upgrade, I recommend backing up your data, if you have a separate /home partition already, this should not be a problem.

I have seen newer versions of Ubuntu, and it is not a radical shift at all.


Personally though, if you are seriously still on Windows 98 as your profile suggests, and are not worried about Windows updates, I would definitely not worry about upgrading your Ubuntu 9.04.

All support for 9.04 ends on Oct. 23, 2010. I recommend upgrading to the next release (9.10 "Karmic Koala") by following these easy instructions:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/KarmicUpgrades

The upgrade is supposed to preserve all of your files and info, however it is always a good idea to have a backup of your data on an external drive.

Ubuntu is a fast-moving distro with a new release every 6 months, and each release is supported for 18 months after its release date. Some users choose to stick with the "Long Term Support" releases, which as supported 3 years. The current LTS is 10.04 (released April 2010 and supported until April 2013), which you can get either by upgrading to 9.10 and then from 9.10 to 10.04, or by backing up your data and doing a fresh reinstall.

But seriously, like I was saying, if you are seriously still on Windows 98 and arn't worried about those updates, why are you so worried about the Ubuntu updates? You will still get the security updates.

Have you heard the expression "two wrongs don't make a right?" Just because Windows 98 is obsolete doesn't mean it is OK to use an obsolete Ubuntu release. There will be no security updates (or any type of support) for Ubuntu 9.04 after Oct. 23, 2010.

Ubuntu is a fast-moving distro; if you are looking for a Linux you can install today and then use for 12 years without an update, look elsewhere. :)

But three "lefts" do! :D

lol No, that's an error. I'm not on 98. I've got XP on this one, and Windows 7 on my laptop. I had to reinstall 7 3 times, trying to put Mint 8 on a dual boot.

Thanks!

Oh yeah! I've got everything backed up. I use a thumb drive to transfer data to a second computer.

mochapolo doesn't seem to be running Win98 as the profile suggests, but rather WinXP/2003 as the windows icon in the post suggests. I'm guessing the profile was made in 2004 when mochapolo registered and hasn't been updated since (this is the first post for mocha after all).

HTH

Forrest

Upgrade to 10.10 via 10.04
 

Ubuntu 10.10 is going to be out this month, and an upgrade from 9 is only possible VIA an upgrade to 10.04.

I don't think that that is correct.

What happens is that you lose an ability to download packages from 9.04's repos, that's it. Everything else stays the same. You just can't upgrade and install software from repos. So your system is like freezed, you can only delete packages. You can install them from local repository though. If you have one. But no upgrades.