Worried when 10.04lts goes end of life

[Mike]

On 11/27/2011 05:26 AM, Joep L. Blom wrote:
> On 27-11-11 09:53, Alex Cockell wrote:
>> Hi all.
>>
>> I'm worried now. In order to sidestep Windows Vista, I have
>> bought both
>> my Thinkpad R61i and Ideapad S12 preinstalled with Ubuntu
>> from Linux
>> Emporium. i have therefore never installed Linux myself,
>> only accepted
>> updates and LTS upgrades as required. i now hear that the user
>> environment has completely changed, and I risk having my
>> machines
>> bricked when 12.04.1 comes around... Or the learning curve
>> completely
>> changes. Why has this happened? I've tried reading through
>> some opf the
>> info on "unity" whatever that is.. And this rthing with
>> "docks"... I've
>> always used the Taskbar...
>>
>> Does this mean that I am potentially going to have to pay
>> out and buy
>> new computers in order to buy this "mint"... Whatever that
>> is? I use
>> Citrix at work.. And have been on XP Classic-style
>> interfaces wherever.
>>
>> Or are there professionals around who can offer the
>> changeover support?
>> can I buy Mint preinstalled and fully supported?
>>
>> or will i have to ditch my kit and buy Windows computers and
>> going back
>> to paying through the nose for sluggish machines?
>>
> Don't worry!
> If you upgrade to 12.04 (my advice: don't do it in April but
> in May or later, then the initial problems are gone) and
> install it as Xubuntu. It is lighter, faster and is much more
> like your current desktop.
> My 0.02 €.
> Joep
>
>

^^^^ That is a great solution. Also, I would recommend that 
you look into joining a LUG (Linux User Group) in your area. 
The folks there could help you with this when the time comes. 
There's nothing like having a someone sit with you and help 
you to upgrade your operating system, especially if you've 
never done a new installation before.

You will still have many choices when support for 10.04 LTS
ends. Try out the newest version of Ubuntu with Unity to see 
if you actually like it first. If not, there's alternatives 
like Xubuntu and other Linux distributions like (as you 
mentioned) Linux Mint, etc...