ubuntu releases / am i supposed to keep upgrading?

[scarf]

i have an older laptop, sony pcg-tr3a, and after upgrading to 9.04 the performance has really degraded, mostly due to the intel graphics problems, and there are other issues as well.

i am having trouble understanding the progression of ubuntu. since the standard releases are only supported for 18 months, i am supposed to keep upgrading?

it seems like i am slowly being forced into new hardware, something i was trying to avoid by leaving windows behind.

am i supposed to stick to the LTS version, like 8.04? what if i want to install a newer version of an app for which the package isn't available to 8.04? and then what happens when the LTS version expires?

thanks.

[lovinglinux]

If you don't want to upgrade, you can stick with the LTS versions. They only expire after a new LTS is available and you can upgrade directly to a new LTS.

If the package is not available on the repositories of your version, then you can search for deb files from the developer site, Launchpad or from GetDeb. You can also add PPA repositories for a particular application or compile from source.