[conspire] upgrade from 10.04 LTS to 12.04 LTS ?

[Daniel Gimpelevich]

On Thu, 2012-12-06 at 11:43 -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> Instead, 'do-release-upgrade' on such a system converts your system to
> GNOME3/Unity, and you have to then install Precise Pangolin's package
> gnome-shell as a separate, subsequent step.

You mean gnome-session-fallback, and NOT gnome-shell, if 11.10 Oneiric
Ocelot is any indication.

> My policy is always:  Try the best available open source drivers and see
> if they are satisfactory.  Only if they really lack, with reluctance
> because there will be heartache and annoyance later (not to mention 
> 'tainted' kernel operation so that my kernel bug reports will be quite
> rightly ignored) if I have to switch to the proprietary drivers as a
> last (NEVER first) resort.

My experiences with nouveau on 11.10 on a GeForce 8600M GT are that it's
WAY too unstable for production use. If people strongly recommend the
proprietary drivers for 12.04, then I suspect this has not changed.

> By the way, you might be happier with Linux Mint with the 'Cinnamon'
> UI, which emulates the GNOME2 desktop metaphor that was based on
> now-unmaintained GNOME Shell.  'Cinnamon' uses a fork of the window
> manager on which GNOME Shell was based, one called Mutter, and provides
> a GNOME2-style desktop metaphor within a GNOME3 software framework 
> (that includes the leading-edge gtk+3 graphics toolkit).

Incorrect. "GNOME Shell" refers only to the currently mainstream flavor
of GNOME3, so it's obviously maintained. Ubuntu has intentionally made
it a nightmare to try to maintain a GNOME Shell desktop, in contrast to
"GNOME Panel," which is what a GNOME2 user sticking with Ubuntu would
want. Cinnamon has zilch to do with GNOME Shell. It's basically MATE
(see below) but with all the GNOME3 eye candy.

> Linux Mint offered a similar thing earlier with 'MATE', an outright fork
> of the entirety of GNOME2 including the gtk+2 graphics toolkit.  They 
> still offer that as an installation option, but I gather that Cinnamon
> is their long-term preferred path forward.

Not necessarily. MATE is certainly less bloated than Cinnamon, so it
could be their "lite" flavor. I don't really know.