I had a few spare hours yesterday, so I decided to upgrade to (the beta version of) Ubuntu 10.4, called Lucid Lynx. The upgrade went quite smooth, but I can't say I was completely happy with the end result. As it's getting usual, a typical Ubuntu upgrade is becoming two steps backwards & 3 forward. There were quite some things broken after the upgrade :

• no framebuffer with the new kernel. Fixed by upgrading to Grub2


• Gnome 1 called and wants its GDM theme back. No, seriously, GDM looks so horrible that I'm wondering there's something wrong with my config


• Some users got XFCE as a default window manager


• The upgrade to Thunderbird 3 removed some of the SMTP server settings for all users.


• The window control button placement is stupid (I know about the many discussions and the Canonical reasoning behind it, but still). Here's a guide how to place these buttons to the right place again.


• There is no support any more for the NVidia drivers. I knew I would run into this, I had to downgrade the drivers already in Karmic, but this means bye-bye to Compiz.

Not all is teeth-gnashing :

• Boot times are faster


• Overall desktop feeling is faster and snappier


• Fonts are displayed way better

So, mixed emotions with the upgrade. Hopefully there are some GDM changes before the release hits the road.