Ubuntu 9.04 - Jaunty Jackalope (upgrade, part 1)

The latest release of Ubuntu linux (Ubuntu 9.04 - Jaunty Jackalope) was released a couple of days ago.  In case you were wondering, this is a jackalope (by "Albrecht Durer" - published here on April 1st, 2008): 

Wikipedia says:

The jackalope - also called an antelabbit, aunt benny, "Rabbicorn", Wyoming thistled hare or stagbunny - is an imaginary animal of folklore and a supposed cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope, goat, or deer, which is usually portrayed as a rabbit with antlers.  

And here's another rendition of a jackalope:

jackalope

Anyway, I usually leave Ubuntu upgrades a couple of days after release, mosly because of server load.  I've always found upgrades to work very well on my machines (two desktop PCs and two notebooks) -  I know many observers advocate fresh installs in preference to upgrades, but really I have so many settings and additional applications that reassembling my preferred setups is a bit too much hassle.

Linux has been my preferred OS for a number of years now, and Ubuntu's been my preferred distro since 2004.  In fact I work almost exclusively with Ubuntu in an otherwise Windows XP-based work environment, with surprisingly few problems.

Usually, it takes me some time to discover where all the changes are, and how they affect me as a user.  As I write this, I've upgraded the first laptop (a venerable IBM ThinkPad R52 of quite modest specs), apparently with complete success, and I'm upgrading my main work computer, a 2 year old Sony Vaio notebook.  I'll make a follow-up post to relate any issues I come up against (and indeed, any significant improvements!).

Find out more about Ubuntu 9.04 here

Download Ubuntu 9.04 here