Should I upgrade from Lucid to Precise?

[foxy123]

Few years ago I put Lucid on my mother's Lenovo G550 laptop and she has been happy with it so far. However, as the support for Lucid will end next spring I am thinking whether I should upgrade it to Precise. There are two problems. First of all, my mother lives in a different country and I have only a remote access to her laptop. So the only way to upgrade is to run the Update Manager with some uncertainty about the result and inability to fix anything with a fresh install if required. Another problem is that the interface has changed drastically since Lucid, which could pose a problem for my mother who started using a computer only a couple of years ago. I just wonder what people think about it and whether anyone could share some personal experiences?

[Claus7]

Hello,

I think that you are answering to your problem. Since your mother seems to be no expert computer user (no offence here), I do not think that the upgrade will make any difference to her.

I'm sticking with maverick at the moment, even if support has dropped and the only reason updating would be some newer libraries for some programs which are not a necessity right now.

Installations and/or upgrades have the risk of failure so:
1) good backup is needed
2) might not go as planned

Since she is happy with what she has, I do not think that an upgrade is something that you should have in mind. Linux is a stable natured system and as that it can work for a long time without remedies.

My humble opinion is that if you would like to do an upgrade, just pay a visit to her, that way you will have one more reason to do so.

Regards!

[thnewguy]

I agree with the above poster. While security upgrades are good to have it sounds like the risks outweigh the rewards in your situation. If you do end up upgrading your mother's installation, rather than moving to Ubuntu 12.04, you might consider moving to the latest version of Mint. They are binary compatible, use similar software and you will be able to install the MATE desktop, which will be much more familiar to your mother than Unity.

[black veils]

if you want to keep a more familiar desktop, install xfce onto the system.

[foxy123]

Thanks a lot, guys, for the responses. I think I'll keep Lucid till I have a direct access to the laptop.