Three questions about AbiWord

[Vladimir Pavic]

Dear friends,

1) How to install Croatian spellchecker in AbyWord and how to activate it? I run Ubuntu 10.04.
2) How to upgrade it to the latest version?
3) How to customize the toollbars?

Thank you

[Impavidus]

You need the package myspell-hr from the repositories. It will get updated automatically. You can use it by selecting the language in abiword via tools>select language. Maybe you have to activate the spell checker via edit>preferences>spell checker. At least, it is available in 12.04, I don't know about 10.04, but as 10.04 is almost end of life it would be a good idea to move to 12.04 anyway.

I don't know about customizing the toolbars.

[Vladimir Pavic]

It is true that 10.04. is at the end of life. Does it mean that it is going to be unusable (unoperable)? Will I be able to use it for next five years? I am attached to 10.04. I tried 12.04. but I don’t like it at all.

[JKyleOKC]

You will be able to continue to use it, but will no longer receive any security updates. I'm almost in the same boat, as I prefer 10.04 also, but will probably do the upgrade in another month (after backing up everything on this 10.04 box including eight large VMs).

[Toz]

Dobar dan Vladimir.
Yes, 10.04 will be end-of-life next month. Although the operating system should still work, it won't be receiving any further updates. If you don't like the direction that Ubuntu has gone in with 12.04, there are options. Have a look at Xubuntu (Xfce), Kubuntu (kde) and Lubuntu (lxde). They are based on Ubuntu but use different desktop environments.

More information here.

[Vladimir Pavic]

Dear jKileOKC and Toz,

Thank you for info help. I prefer to stick to 10.04. till 'the end of my life'. If I wont be able to receive any security updates, does that mean that the system will be vulnerable to hackers' attacks or what ...?

[mörgæs]

Yes.

I would suggest that you try Xubuntu 12.10 with Libre Office before making a decision.

[Toz]

If I wont be able to receive any security updates, does that mean that the system will be vulnerable to hackers' attacks or what ...?

There are those who would say that any and every system is always vulnerable. However, in your case, if you choose to run 10.04 after its EOL date, off the top of my head you can expect the following:

1. No security updates (e.g. if a potential security hole/flaw is doscovered - think Java - you will not receive any patches).
2. The official repositories are taken off-line, so you are unable to add new software (You can point your sources to the archive location to maintain this functionality. See here).
3. You will have a more difficult time getting support even from these forums because most people would have already upgraded from 10.04 and/or would first suggest upgrading.
4. ..... (others may have additional points to add)

[ajgreeny]

The other alternative is to use Ubuntu 12.04, but instead of unity, have a long look at the nearest thing to the old gnome-2 that you are going to get, the gnome-classic desktop.

All details of how to get it are at 12.04 LTS Precise Classic. There are some minor differences, but it is the best available for 12.04, if you really must have a desktop just like 10.04.

[JKyleOKC]

Dear jKileOKC and Toz,

Thank you for info help. I prefer to stick to 10.04. till 'the end of my life'. If I wont be able to receive any security updates, does that mean that the system will be vulnerable to hackers' attacks or what ...?

It may be vulnerable, and the probability of that happening is very high. The initial problem, though, will be the inability to install additional software plus the difficulty of receiving support.

I use Xubuntu rather than the main Ubuntu version, and have since 7.04, so I don't see major differences between 10.04 and 12.04 on the desktop. In my two-machine LAN, one is on Lucid and the other is on Precise, with no significant differences in the look and feel. The main thing holding up my switch from Lucid to Precise on that older machine is a matter of backing up some 300 GiB of virtual disks that are there, and reluctance to attempt a distro upgrade in place rather than doing a clean install, because of the complexity of my configuration there... A clean install would require at least a month of fiddling to restore smooth operation!