[ale] upgrading my obsolete Ubuntu 11.04 to What?

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Hi all,

( I've been tied up with hard drive maintenance lately.  I have some old 
threads still waiting for replies on tablet GUI's, hard drive 
maintenance, and hard drive partitions.  I've got some info to share on 
these topics when I can.  Thanks for all the replies to those earlier 
threads.  I just happened to be up late tonight and have been dealing 
with OS upgrades on Windows, so I thought I'd ask about OS upgrades on 
Linux too.)

My Ubuntu 11.04 installs recently went out of support, so I'm 
considering upgrading.  I want to stick within the Debian lineage since 
I really like the efficient package management system of APT and am 
fairly familiar with the way Ubuntu does things.  I hate Unity, as I've 
ranted about before.  I do like Gnome 2, so I want something similar to 
that.

I probably won't be doing Debian 6 Squeeze, per this article:

http://www.osnews.com/story/24535/Debian_6_Squeeze_Not_Good/

The main options I'm aware of right now are Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Mint.  
The idea of a full install isn't appealing, since there are hundreds of 
things I tweak when I install any new OS, and it takes several days.  
(Firefox plus Ghostery plus Better Privacy plus NoScript plus Flash 
alone have about 80 settings options to check, for each user login.)  
But, I could do a full install if I have to.

Based on my reading, I'd probably put Mate on as the UI.  I know this, I 
must have a categorized MENU of all available apps, like Gnome 2.  The 
DASH button then type what you want option in Unity is fine if it's an 
ADJUNCT to the MENU.  If you know what you want, that's wonderful.  If 
there's a lot more about Linux that you don't know than what you do, 
like me, then you need a MENU.

The other thing that's important to me is support.  Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is 
supported for 5 years.  That's good.  Because, I'd much rather spend my 
time using the computer than upgrading it every couple of years or so.

Frankly, Microsoft is doing better at this than the Linux community.  My 
Vista and Windows 7 installs get security and maintenance updates for 10 
years, compared to 5 for new LTS versions of Ubuntu, 3 for prior LTS 
versions (I think), and 1.5 or .5 for some products.

So, Vista, which was released in 2007, is supported until 2017, the same 
as Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
Windows 7, which was released in 2009, is supported until 2020, longer 
than any current Linux I'm familiar with.

I think that if Linux developers want long term users, they need to get 
more serious about long term support.  Ubuntu's move to 5 year LTS 
support is a step in the right direction.

Anyway, from a functionality and usability point of view, do you think 
I'd be better off with Ubuntu 12.04 and Mate, Mint and Mate, or 
something else?  I also want to make my upgrade path as relatively 
painless as possible.  I'm considering doing an in place upgrade to 
Ubuntu 11.10 and then an in place upgrade to 12.04.  I know that will 
take many hours, but hopefully, most things that used to work will still 
work.

Any help is appreciated, as always.

Sincerely,

Ron


-- 

(To whom it may concern.  My email address has changed.  Replying to former
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Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com