I’ve never upgraded a Linux distribution before. Actually, I’ve never successfully upgraded any distribution – it’s always a clean install for me.

Since switching to Ubuntu about a year ago, I’ve been pleasantly surprised about how things “just work”. That is the way it should be . And thus far, I’ve had everything simply work (except for installing on a RAID5 array, I had to pull a couple of tricks to get that to work. On the other hand, Windows is a nightmare to install on a RAID array without a floppy drive).

So I thought rather carefully when the update manager said “A new version of Ubuntu (9.04) is available”. Clicking on that button can only lead to a broken system, right?

Wrong. The upgrade went perfect. No problems – none whatsoever! How did the guys at Ubuntu pull that off? Everything just simply works . No screwing around with packages that cannot be upgraded, no strange X problems, nothing. One reboot and I’ve got the latest and greatest.

So – if you’re like me and you aren’t sure about upgrading an existing system for fear of breaking things – take the plunge. It’s a lot easier than you think.