Three days ago; re- installed Ubuntu 10.4 (it had become very unstable)

This mornig down loaded all updates and installed (366 files & 2oo + Mb)

Downloaded & installed GPARTED (from a link I noticed in the Help file.

All in preparation for 10.10 (ubuntu)

Any advice before I take that plunge, to 10.10 will be greatly appreciated.

Just go for it. And if it won't work properly (which it won't), purge it and install Debian.

Personally I did not find either of the two to be more stable or unstable. I found 9.04 to be more stable than other releases right from 7.04 till 10.10 that I am using right now. Yes, this is the personal opinion though and it may vary with others. But if you want to install a newer version, and if you can, do a new clean install rather than upgrade.

And by the way, LTS is better to my opinion. So you may wanna try LTS instead of 10.10. Long support help very much here.

Not much on the desktops for me. If you are putting a server then 5 year support makes sense. But if its just a desktop that you can take backup of and install again, getting a newer does not hurt much.

Thankyou - all for these responses

Mr Alex: I was under the impression that Ubuntu was derived from Debian. But that is only what I've heard.

Ubuntu is derived from the Debian Unstable branch, heavily modified and pressed into a release cycle of only six months, which (my personal opinion, no offense meant) must have the consequence of being more buggy than Debian.
I personally used Ubuntu from I think 8.04 to 9.10 and always had problems with it. Switched to Debian Stable, and found it being really stable, so gone first to Debian Testing and then to Debian Unstable. And I hardly ever have any issues with it, and when I have some, they are fixed almost every time with the next update. But maybe I just am a lucky boy, because I never use a standard installation.

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If determined to go with 10.10, check out SuperOS --
it could save a bunch of hassles, IMHO. Then install perl-tk and bastille.

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Thanks for this information Tobi. When you say "I never use a standard installation" - Do you mean you modify it or that you choose your own packages rather than the automatic stuff?

Thanks for this info. I found the SuperOS site very enlightening, sounds like some valuable fixes: but I would have difficulty knowing which download(s) to select. eg 32 or 64, then there are 6 or 7 choices, which, I am afraid, I don't understand. Are these just the locations or different versions/features?
I am running on an ACER laptop (Aspire 6930) Dual core 2.2 Processor, 500g HD, 3g ram.
The intention is (after installing whatever is decided on) to run Linux .as a host & Vista as the guest with the help of 'Virtual Box', rather than the current messy dual boot. Thanks again for the useful info.

I've been running 10.10 on my primary computer (laptop) since it came out; I did the web upgrade from 10.04. No problems. The computer has successfully survived each web upgrade since 8.04 (the factory distro).

I'm not a particularly big Ubuntu fan, but the computer came with factory-installed Ubuntu and a Broadcom wireless card. The wireless works and I don't want to spend the energy to put something else on it and get the wireless working.

I upgraded to 10.10 a few weeks ago. I have since run into a couple of things that don't work. Specifically: 1- I had trouble with an HP printer using the HPLIP and Foomatic driver set. I had the same exact problem as others have reported using 10.10, while in 10.04 and earlier many posts said that it worked out of the box. 2 - I use a blackberry to tether the PC to get Internet access on occasion. When doing so, I use pppd and a plug in from the barry utility set. This means that my network connection is NOT managed my the network manager. When I switched to 10.10, the Evolution mail package was upgraded (down grades not shown in synaptic) and there is now a problem where I can't manually override the connection and force it to work online. Apparently, Evolution always uses a flag from the network manager but the developers added the feature that it won't let you override the network manager saying no-networks. Consequently, I can't use my main email program with my cell phone.

My advice would be to stay away from 10.10 if at all possible. Personally, I have been finding that Ubuntu is becoming a little annoying with bugs that I think are related to their relentless release schedule.

I cannot speak to the tethering issue, but I can say that my HP Officejet L7680 kept printing seamlessly under HPLIP after the upgrade.

The printer is networked as an ethernet printer with its own ip address; I don't know whether that may make a difference, but I thought it was worth noting.

I also have 10.10 on my netbook (fresh install from CD) working flawlessly.

I'm not voting one way or the other. Just sharing my little bit of experience.

Read about 32 bit and 64 bit here: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/glossa...bit-64-bit.htm

To know in which of the above categories your computer lies, execute:
If you wish to download Super OS, check this out: http://linux.softpedia.com/progDownl...oad-44128.html

Open the 32bit OR 64bit links from the above website in a new tab/window, copy the exact address and paste it next to:
But before trying any new distribution, do check whether your provider supports it!

I always do a minimal install and then install the applications I want to have on my system.