Today I did an upgrade to the newest version of Kubuntu Linux. So far I have been pleased with everything. Since the install of the last version of Kubuntu I have had sound problems. This was caused by a buggy PulsAudio implementation. It affected many, but not everyone. I guess they finally got it worked out because everything works so far.
The only issue I have run into is the wireless card was not recognized by default. I have to run a proprietary driver for the wireless card on this notebook. Now I just have to see if I ever documented how I got it working after the last few upgrades.
I downloaded the .iso file of the CD and burned it onto a DVD (I did not have any CD-R media handy). It worked just fine. While doing the install/upgrade I chose my drive partition for the install, but did not format the partition. This installed the new OS on top of my old install, but left my data intact. When doing this the old OS is erased and the new is installed in place. This allows a clean install, but again, leaves your data untouched. It also keeps all your old settings on your software configuration. There is one downside to this: if you had software that was configured badly before, it still will be. To get around that you can delete the hidden configuration directory of the offending software from your home directory.
This has been a much anticipated upgrade for me. I was disappointed in the last 2 upgrades of Kubuntu because previously working items became broken. So far, once I get the wireless running again, everything works as expected. I have not put it through its paces, but I don’t anticipate any problems.