Good review of the upgrade process. I would add that there will be no
12.10. It is LTS only at this point.

Your review will be encouraging to anyone contemplating upgrading. Thanks.

I can add:

1) Silly me: SoftMaker Office is software with separate trial and
full versions. I keep overlooking that. :-(

2) I have now upgraded that other computer to Ubuntu Studio 12.04
(32-bit).

Interesting:
I had burned that distribution image to disk, but mistakenly as a
file. So I had to reburn it to another DVD in order to boot from it.
I did so using US 10.04. The remarkable thing is, that I could
successfully do so using a blank disk of a brand that would be refused
by that same hardware under Windows.

3) Once again, I'm surprized by the swiftness (especially the quick
start-up) of Linux compared to Windows on the same hardware.
To be fair: I tend to install tons of programs, and I have not yet
done so under Ubuntu.
(On the other hand, my cheap and still /relatively/ clean Android 4.0
tablet feels much slower than my laden iPad.)

You likely won't notice much slowdown as you install applications because
Linux applications usually do not stay resident in memory and pre-load to
the system tray which is a practice many developers have fallen into under
Windows. It is not necessarily a fault of Windows that this happens but
Linux makes it harder for this to happen and open source developers are
more aware of these things. Most Windows performance degradation is related
to all of the necessary additions like anti-spyware and anti-virus that
check for updates and install them plus crapware from the OEM that seem to
need to run from the system tray. Then they ask you to re-boot
periodically. Also the Windows registry gets bigger and gets fragmented
over time. This can slow down applications starting up and running. Linux
has no registry.

I am glad that you like Ubuntu Studio. Try to support them as you can by
joining their community and donating time and/or money. This project is
worthy of support, but it is one of the smaller ones and it was on the
brink of failing not long ago. Of course, this is totally voluntary in open
source. This applies to all projects in Linux. But it encourages developers
even if you send a dollar or two. They add up and help pay for servers.
Nobody will get rich on donations to Linux. :)

1) Yes, I know the habits of Windows. I know about the background
processes and the growing and fragmenting Registry. The Linux
community appears to have found a way around that.

Sidebar:
My interest in UNIX may predate my use of Windows. I couldn't afford
SCO XENIX thouigh. I still have MINIX (which Linus Torvalds developed
into Linux) on floppies. But subsequent tries to get Linux installed
on a computer of mine failed. I remember RedHat, Slackware, and a
failed installation of SuSE 6 with my Linux guru sitting beside me.
Moreover, even when Knoppix proved to run on a computer of mine from
a CD, Linux seemed to be looking away from (creating) multimedia.
Some four or five years ago I witnessed a (poor) demonstration of
the musical possibilities of Ubuntu Studio. Last year I made room on
that 32-bit system and installed it, and finally doubled that on this
64-bit system.

2) I may well eventually support Ubuntu Studio, by money rather than
time: when I consider myself a regular rather than a visitor or
newbie.

On your later reaction:

3) The app that convinced me of my "need" for a tablet was
GarageBand. (In the shop I managed to freeze the iPad running it...)
The great thing about iOS (matter of opinion!) is its implementation
of multimedia, especially MIDI. (Everybody and their aunties create
camera apps and musical instrument emulations.)
History seems to repeat itself (matter of opinion!): Android seems
to be looking away from (creating) multimedia.

4) Oh yes, I definitely prefer to spend my money on open source
projects than on profit margins. Unfortunately, the hardware is
likely to stem from similar exploitation.
I am involved in Dutch politics, but let's keep politics off-list. ;-)

I'd keep an eye on Arm with it's hobbyist and student culture and price, now I
see daughter boards being released, too. After the newer Kernels support it
things should begin to standardize on the platform.

I thought AVLinux did a fair job, unfortunately it seems to be the last release,
until another picks up the torch.

distrowatch.com/index.php

Yes. ARM is great technology, but MS and Intel are workign together to keep
out Linux. Intel's latest chip was made specifically for W8 and can't run
on Linux according to Intel. MS's secure boot EUFI will allow Linux to run
on Intel x86 chips, but their agreements with OEMS on ARM specifically
prohibit changing the bootloader.

This is bad news for Linux on servers where ARM may be the best deployment,
although many are now saying Atom is better. :)

On your concluding paragraph... it isn't a fair comparison. The hardware
sets the limits to the the performance. A no name tablet with "cheap"
components can't compete with the finely tuned iPad.

I'm not sure about your position either. You can usually get more bang for
the buck by NOT buying Apple.

For the same money you can get a faster processor, more RAM, bigger drive,
a better graphics card, etc. My wife's Lenovo laptop came with a better
processor, bigger HD, more RAM, bigger screen, etc. than my daughter's
Macbook Pro and cost $500 less.

When it comes to the iPad (my wife has one) there are a couple of limiting
factors that few Apple users mention. You cannot expand it and the camera
has fewer MP. My Android tablet has more basic RAM than her iPad (32 MBs vs
16) and can be expanded with microSD cards (up to 32 Gbs more). My camera
is 8 MP compared to her 5 MP. Ditto for my Android phone and her iPhone.
With Apple you are locked in and are more likely to have to upgrade before
a similar Android user due to lack of expansion. Which the cynic in me says
is Apple's plan to sell more devices. Planned obsolescence.

The intent is not to knock Apple, but to show how they work. You are paying
a premium price for solid hardware and OS, but can get more for less by not
buying Apple with the added bonus of being expandable.

That's why I thought it fair to mention that. :-)

Sidebar:
My device does have a name: "Ultimate10-Android4.0", by TomTec.
I considered its purchase "learning money", but the device has proven
its worth. (Main drawback: short battery life.)
I'm also subscribed to the AndroidUsers and AndroidTablets (and iPad
and iPhone) lists.