Well, I have actually tried what it suggested on the Ubuntu web site to upgrade to 6.10 but I get an error message about a Debian multi media package website and checking my network connection. Hmm. Still, I have got 7.04 so perhaps I should have go... Bev.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Wayne Stallwood" ALUGlist@digimatic.co.uk To: ALUG main@lists.alug.org.uk Subject: Re: [ALUG] Firefox Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:09:48 +0000
On Sun, 2007-12-23 at 15:54 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote:
It is just Firefox that freezes/stops responding. (I'm not too sure exactly what X is but nothing else appears to be affected.) As to the version of ubuntu I use, well it is the long term support version and I don't fancy the hassle of changing to something newer just yet. And why not? :¬) Bev.
If you really don't want the (to be fair 95% of the time relatively minor) hassle of upgrading Ubuntu every 6 months then the LTS version is a fair choice. I use it on my home media server PC because given the very limited set of functions that machine performs it wouldn't really benefit from being on something newer.
Unfortunately what you don't get on LTS is bug fixes that come as part of new versions of key packages like firefox. A lot of compatibility/security/stability fixes have been made to Firefox since 1.5 and unless you want to manually update your copy or find a more recent version in a backports repository somewhere then you may be stuck with some bugs.
My personal view is that the only time I would consider LTS versions for desktop computing over more recent versions is if I was supporting a whole office full of Ubuntu and a 6 month upgrade cycle was impractical. In that event I would probably be creating my own packages to apply more recent versions of things like Firefox (if they don't exist already). That or some business critical system that I daren't touch unless there is a specific benefit to justify my tampering (but in all fairness I probably wouldn't be running mission critical business systems on Ubuntu)
The main problem you have now is your upgrade path is pretty complicated because the supported path would be Dapper>Edgy>Feisty>Gutsy which is a lot of effort (in reality it may be possible to skip some of those but the official upgrade instructions are pretty clear in stating that only an upgrade from the previous version is supported). I am hoping that there will be a direct upgrade path between LTS versions so you would be able to do Dapper>Hardy next April..But I wouldn't hold your breath on that being the case.
Also there have been some significant improvements to not only the applications but the core systems since Dapper. Gnome has been improved in places and now feels faster than it ever has done to me, faster boot times, Some magic foo in Feisty/Gutsy that gives a similar performance gain to prelinking stuff but without the hassle factor (short version some apps start much faster), the list of application improvements is almost endless, not to mention better hardware support etc.
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On Sun, 2007-12-23 at 19:06 +0100, Bev Nicolson wrote:
Well, I have actually tried what it suggested on the Ubuntu web site to upgrade to 6.10 but I get an error message about a Debian multi media package website and checking my network connection. Hmm. Still, I have got 7.04 so perhaps I should have go... Bev.
It might be that there is a repository in your apt sources list that is no longer available (or doesn't support 6.10). Have you added any automated media package installers like automatix that may have messed with your /etc/apt/sources.list ? are there any uncommented lines in there that don't point to ubuntu.com or it's mirrors ?
Upgrading to the 7.04 version via the CD you have may be more difficult than upgrading to 6.10 first, I'd check the ubuntu forums before doing that and probably suggest you do it via the repositories rather than from a CD (if you have broadband)
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Bev Nicolson -
Wayne Stallwood