Welcoming myself to Ubuntu, but I have some questions

[johnny.kastropf at runbox.com]

Dear Ubuntu users,

I have been using Linux distributions since RedHat 5.0 (1997?) so I am not entirely new to the scene. I am however new to Debian and especially Ubuntu and have some questions.

1. Upgrading preview to final release?

Right now I have the preview version of 5.10 installed. However, I see that the update manager has continuously updated packages. Am I right to assume that there is no formal action required when the final version is released tomorrow?

2. Is ubuntu 'future proof'?

The default installation process created just one 'main' partition (ignoring swap partitions, e.g.), which I now regret that I did not manually edit the partition table to create two partitions to seperate operating system and packages from user data information (documents, music etc).

>From my old redhat days. I remember that I could safely 'upgrade' distributions with the same common main version. For example I could safely upgrade a 5.0 system to a 5.2 system because they shared the 'same' glibc/gcc versions, and supposidely applications compiled for a 5.0 system would work on a 5.2 system (because the libraries were compatible).

I read somewhere that standard Ubuntu releases have a standard 18 month cycle (which again reminds me of RedHat).
The question is how upgradable are Ubuntu releases? I read about dist-upgrade and read pages like http://ubuntuguide.org/#upgradehoarytobreezy which detail that you can change the sources to upgrade to 'breezy', but there is a huge warning somewhere that it could "break your system".

So what's the deal here? Can you upgrade or not?  Will I be able to upgrade in the future?  

3. Sound system has its imperfection

I'm using a Toshiba M10 centrino laptop, which impressively has many features supported out of the box. I noticed however, that only one application can use the 'sound system' at a time. For example, if I am using skype, I can not use pandora.com (personalised radio system) -- Is that normal? Is there a way to overcome this?

4. How can I disable the centrino power management sesttings?

I have a 1.3GHz Pentium M processor, and according to my CPU usage, Linux (rightfully) changes the voltage on my CPU (right now I am running at 600MHz because all I am doing is web browsing).  I however want to change this feature 'off' when I have my computer connected to the AC power.  Is that possible? 


5. How do I resize partitions with information on it without destroying my data?

I remember I used to use FIPS in my days. What is the modern free alternative? Want to split my current partition.

Thanks all,
J