I finally upgraded my brother’s desktop computer and my desktop computer to Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala. Prior, both had been running Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron, which was stable but was starting to show its age. I’ve always found that bleeding edge works well for desktops and tried and true works better for servers.
Ubuntu 9.10 works well, but I have discovered a few unresolved bugs that have proven to be annoyances. I’ve resigned myself to not being able to burn optical discs under Karmic because of a bug. This extends beyond Brasero to include the Wodim command line burning tool. After I upgraded, I switched from Rhythmbox to Banshee because it has better iPod syncing capabilities. However, those capabilities are a bit flaky, and I had to use this hack to make things work.
Regardless, it was a helpful and necessary upgrade. I look forward to the Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx update in April.