Productivity Sauce

While it is possible to upgrade Ubuntu 9.10 to the latest 10.04 Lucid Lynx release, a clean install is the best way to go if you want to avoid update headaches. Usually this means reinstalling your favorite applications and applying tweaks all over again -- but now with Ubuntu 10.04. A clever script with the imaginative name Ubuntu 10.04 Start Script can help you to install software and tweak the system with a minimum of fuss.

Despite the script's bare-bones appearance, it provides a wealth of options. Using the script, you can add popular repositories including Ubuntu restricted extras, Medibuntu, and Getdeb. With a few clicks, you can install a wide range of useful applications such as Dropbox, Google Earth, Google Chrome, VLC media player, Ubuntu Tweak and many others. The script also lets you install different codecs, Java runtime environment, Flash plugin as well as add support for various archive types and DVD playback. In addition to that, the script can apply an assortment of tweaks to the freshly installed system.

The Ubuntu 10.04 Start Script relies on the Zenity tool which is used to add graphical front-ends to scripts, so make sure that the zenity package is installed on your system. Grab then the latest tarball archive from the project's Web site and unpack it. In the terminal, switch to the resulting directory and run the script as root using the following command:

sudo ./ubuntu-10.04-script

Although the script doesn't offer any mind-blowing features, it can save you a lot of time and effort if you choose to move to Ubuntu 10.04 via the clean install path.