No. You can only upgrade from one LTS to the next or from the previous
regular version to the newer. You cannot skip versions unless it is from
previous LTS.

e.g. You can upgrade directly from 8.04 to 10.04 because both are LTS
releases and you can upgrade from 9.04 to 9.10, but not to 10.04.

Your best bet is to get a new CD and install from that. Since 7.04 is no
longer being supported and you did not seem to be worried about that, you
should wait an extras few weeks until 10.04 comes out and download or get
that CD. That way you can avoid having to install 9.10 (current CD) and then
upgrade to 10.04 LTS in April. That reduces your chances of having problems
by a factor of 2.

Most experts say to do a clean install.

(And to have a separate home partition - but I havent managed that yet)

But whether to install the Beta of 10.4,
or wait for the release on April 29th,
or install 9.10 and then upgrade?

You can test it from the CD before installing
(if you've enough RAM)
to check that sound and internet etc work.

Easy to download from
http://www.ubuntu.com/


I leave windows on and set them up as dual boot,
then if something fails to work I can boot back into windows
which gives me a clue whether its software or hardware.

But I hardly ever boot my ubuntu machine into windows.

The upgrade path is strictly limited to one version at a time, i.e. 7.04 to
7.10 to 8.04 to 8.10 - well, you get the picture, too tedious to
contemplate. It's also prone to failure.

For best results a fresh install is recommended, with root (/) and home
(home) on separate partitions so in future upgrades none of your data (but
all of your programmes unfortunately) will be lost.

There's a great tip I learned to reinstall most of your apps after a
fresh install.

Before re-installing, enter the following in a terminal:

dpkg --get-selections "*" > Desktop/applications

This will create a text file called applications on your desktop. If you
haven't got a separate /home partition, make sure you save this file
along with the rest of your data.

Once you've done the install and restored your data, including the
Desktop/applications file, you can enter the following commands in a
terminal

sudo apt-get update
sudo dpkg --set-selections < Desktop/applications
sudo apt-get -u dselect-upgrade

et voila, most of your apps (those that are in the repositories) are
back again.

But don't forget the configuration of those softwares...
Some need files in /etc, some in your /home, some /elsewhere...

Your Email client is an exemple. It may generate a random name directory to
store stuff. Ensure you can keep your stuff

At least keep a good backup of /etc and /home.
And you should have a logbook of all actions that you did on your machine in
case you need to reinstall. Often you cannot just bring back the old
configuration if you use a newer one... Some thinking will be needed.

I'm sorry I didn't keep a note of where I got it from, so I could
attribute it properly. It's made me (along with a separate \home
partition) a lot more confident about reinstallations and multiple installs.

I'll wait for the new release next month
and download the CD.
That particular computer is running Windows XP and is infected with the
XP Defender Pro Virus. What a pain.

You are obviously making a good move getting away from windoze to Ubuntu
but, while you are waiting, have you tried Malwarebytes Anti-Malware to
clean up your PC - it can be downloaded here
<www.bleepingcomputer.com/.../remove-antivirus-vista-2010>
?

You might want to download and burn a recent copy of a SystemRescueCD or
another standalone rescue CD (PLoP with Avast, Knoppix-STD with Clam, Avira
System Rescue System, Linux Defender with BitDefender for Linux, Trinity
Rescue). Try as many as you like. All are free to download and use. Burn
them to a re-writable and you won't waste anything, but time. It is good
practice and it should help you to clean your Windows installation.


http://www.sysresccd.org/download.en.php
http://www.plop.at/en/ploplinux.html
http://www.knoppix-std.org/download.html
www.free-av.com/.../..._antivir_rescue_system.html
www.bitdefender.com/...ender-goes-Live-on-P2P.html
http://trinityhome.org/trk/download.shtml

http://www.livecdlist.com/