Ubuntu 7.10, My Easiest Operating System Upgrade Ever

Just a few days ago I wrote about the launch of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, friendly name for version 7.10 of one of the most popular Linux distributions, and my current favorite. Then, just a few days later, my preferred open source graphics project released its new version: Gimp 2.4, which required some new libraries included with Ubuntu 7.10.

What else did I needed to make the jump and upgrade my boxes from Feisty Fawn to the new Gutsy Gibbon? Well, just a little time and peace of mind to make sure I wouldn't lose any of my settings, too much work here these days to waste my time reconfiguring everything.

So, I followed the upgrade instructions for Ubuntu. A click here, a click there, waiting for some files to download while I watched a movie, some more clicks and, what?, is that all? Yup.

This is one of the easiest operating system upgrades I've ever experienced. The Ubuntu guys have done a great job to offer an ultra friendly upgrade process with easy to understand dialogs all the way. I was able to move from Feisty Fawn to Gutsy Gibbon in two desktops, Flenser and Woodcarver, and one laptop, Amber, maintaining all settings intact. All of these machines had several virtual hosts running on Apache, with a few MySQL and PostgreSQL databases and some users managing email with Evolution. Nothing too complicated, I know, but anyway, it's nice to upgrade and have everything in place.

The final version of Gimp 2.4 is not there yet, Gutsy comes with a release candidate version, which works perfect for me, but it's just a matter of days until we get it on the repositories.

So, if you've been waiting for that upgrade to the latest Ubuntu wait no more, you can do it, literally, while you sleep. Oh, and then tell us about it, ok?