how do I upgrade to 8.10?

Try this: Go to System > Administration > Software Sources > Updates. At the bottom of the dialog box you should see a selection option entitled "Release Upgrade." The choice shown is probably "Long term support releases only." Change that to "Normal releases" and close the Updates dialog box.

After making that change, you may be prompted to upgrade at that point.

If so, proceed.

If not, I suggest that you restart your computer and then go to System > Administration > Update Manager.

You should then see the option to upgrade to version 8.10.

If this does in fact appear and you choose to upgrade by clicking on the option, note that this will take longer than just downloading the normal updates for 8.04. I recommend that you effect this upgrade at a time when you will be able to do so at your leisure, without anything else causing distraction.

Note too that after you have upgraded to 8.10 and everything is satisfactory, you will want to further upgrade to 9.04. Then, in this coming October or November, you will want to upgrade to 9.10!

Doing this is like getting a new computer every six months - and for free! (Imagine Windows 7 or a new Mac OS being given away for free!! Yeah, right!)

I do recommend that, come next October, that you do NOT - repeat NOT - attempt a network upgrade (that's what this upgrading is called) on the first day of release. Wait a week or two. On the first day the servers are bogged down with EVERYBODY trying to get the upgrade all at once. (I myself made that mistake.) A week or two's wait is no major catastrophe and, if one or two 'bugs' occur with the new version (there are always some), they will quickly be fixed so by the time a week or two has passed and you then upgrade, your installation will proceed smoothly and the OS will be fully satisfactory.

Best of luck.

Lawrence

Yeah - I don't have all those options for some reason. When I go to that tab, all I see is
"Automatic Updates" where I can check or uncheck "check for updates" and choose a timeline. Then there are two options to download updates in background or only notify of updates. I don't have any of the options shown on the upgrade info online. Do I need to change some setting????

You do not see an option below "Automatic Updates" called "Release Upgrade?"

If not, then I suppose Dell doesn't want you to attempt to upgrade your OS.

If that "Release Upgrade" section is missing, perhaps someone else here can help you. If not, you may want to telephone Dell's customer service (but good luck doing that!).

Yeah - it's not there - you're probably right, some Dell CUSTOM item with my luck. Anyone know how to work around it? If not, how long is my version supported? Or should I uninstall and reinstall the new one? And if so, how do I do that????

Thanks!

Thanks Lawrence H. Bulk, that solved my question.

On a separate computer, you can always download the 9.04 Live CD, burn it, boot into it (still on the other computer) and use System > Administration > USB Startup Disk Creator to put the Live CD on a USB stick. Then try upgrading from that on your system, but the HDD size will probably still get in the way. Plus, there is no telling what customized version of 8.04 you have and whether it will upgrade nicely. :/

Gotta love Dell!

Additionally, if you only do e-mail, you can backup your ~/.camel-certs & ~/.evolution folders (or use evolution's backup functionality - which does the same thing but stores them nicely in a compressed file), then wipe the drive, and use the aforementioned USB stick to do a fresh install. (Or a USB CD/DVD drive with the normal Live CD).

But still, buy a bigger drive! =)