Should I upgrade from Ubuntu 13.04 to 13.10 Saucy Salamander?

Ubuntu 13.10 'Saucy Salamander'

I always get excited when Ubuntu asks if I want to upgrade, but then I am immediately filled with a small amount of fear.  What if I have to fix a bunch of problems caused by the upgrade and I am unable to use my computer for what it is intended for...work.

I don't know about you, but I like things to run smoothly, but I'm a sucker for new features and the promise of stability or performance increases.  When I upgraded to Ubuntu 13.04 I felt a little let down.  Up until this point almost every Ubuntu upgrade I did went smooth and came with some new features.  Although the upgrade itself went smooth, once I got all of my workspaces  setup (2 vertical, 4 horizontal for 8 total work spaces), I noticed some serious issues with my graphics card.  Once my machine was humming at semi-full capacity if I used CTRL + ALT + SHIFT and the arrows to bring a window with me to another workspace Unity would crash, sending all my windows into one big unorganized work space.  This is not optimal if your desktop/workspace is anally organized for efficiency.  I mean, I am so anal that once everything is setup I put off rebooting at all costs.  There are times I literally don't do a reboot for well over a month.


This begs the question, is the upgrade to 13.10 going to have the same ill effects on my productivity?  There are a few new bells and whistles, like the new Smart Scopes search and Steam, but the bottom line for me is that if the operating system is more stable then it will in fact increase my productivity.  This is my main concern, so I decided that I would make the leap...besides I haven't missed an Ubuntu upgrade in a few years, and I don't want all the hard work of these developers to go wasted on me.  Its funny, every time there is an Ubuntu upgrade available I find myself asking the question, "Is it Worth It?", and every time I end up deciding it is.  I mean, this isn't windows we're talking about here.  These upgrades actually fix things.  Novel idea, isn't it?

When I finally got around to checking out all the new features the upgrade had to offer it was Friday at about 4:00 pm, so I decided not to start the upgrade until Monday.  I knew if there were any small issues to deal with, I would not be excited to have to tackle them all first thing Monday morning before I started work.  Instead I decided to go home, and start the upgrade on my personal laptop to test things out.

The upgrade went extremely smoothly and after a quick reboot I got a chance to check everything out.  The OS looks exactly the same at first glance.  The first change you see is when you click on the Ubuntu icon on the Unity tool bar.  After clicking the Ubuntu icon click on "Filter Results".  I do think I will use this feature quite a bit, it is nice to be able to filter the results so specifically.

The New Smart Scopes Feature on Ubuntu 13.10

I did not take the change to check out Steam yet, but when I can take a break from being "all work" to enjoy some pleasure I will make sure to write an update.

Happy upgrading, and enjoy Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander!