Some years back, I somehow was the king of pop, errr, operating systems :) . I tried different Linux distributions in various flavours, like SuSE, Mandrake, Debian, and Gentoo. Not to mention Windows and Mac operating systems.
Things and interests have changed since then. Instead of exploring the secrets of operating systems, I started to write my own code, and last but not least, mapping and hacking for openstreetmap.org.
I got my current main machine back in autumn of 2007, as my previous one died after only :) 5 years. I installed Kubuntu 7.0.4 Gutsy and was pleased with it. Installation went fine, only the audio stuff needed some manual work. It just did what I needed. Since then, I did not care much concerning the system, except for some minor updates. It just worked, and I refrained from installing upgrades to newer systems, as this usually requires to fiddle around with some minor problems.
Unfortunately, I was tricked now. In spring, as I wanted to install some application, I noticed that the repository was gone. Yes, Gutsy was discontinued. Doh. So I was disconnected from software and operating system updates.
First, I thought, no prob, I have everything I need on my machine so I can continue using it for a while. But from time to time you need to update some software or some library to get your coding work done.
Today, I wanted to play with ruby on rails to learn more about it. Guess what, rails wasn’t installed. And the repo is gone. apt-get install rails just results in some 404 errors. Argh. Disconnected!
I tried to hesitate, but finally decided that I need to upgrade my operating system. The upgrade will bring me KDE 4 instead of KDE 3, so I expect some hassle porting all my data (like calendar events, mail, feeds and the like) to the updated desktop applications. Not to mention the resurrection of other user data like bookmarks and further configuration files.
I downloaded a Kubuntu 9.0.4 ISO image, burned it and threw it in. It is installing right now, so the evening is saved (or, the other way around: wasted). While I am interested in KDE 4, I know exactly that it will last weeks before I will have all apps, libraries and tools I need back on my hard drive.
OK, the machine is reboooting into the newly installed system right now. Let’s see what follows :) .
