I am a big fan of Linux and, more particularly, a big fan of Xubuntu Linux. This is not a review of Xubuntu but an acknowledgement of my biennial struggle about when to replace the previous Long Term Support (LTS) release, Xubuntu 18.04 with the new release 20.04 that is scheduled to drop on April 23. I do not think I have made it more than half a day before I bite the bullet and make the change. This will be a pretty straightforward deal with the computer I use for my PhD work and our home computers, but my day job machine is another story. We have lots of heavy lifting going on and the setup of a development computer of any stripe (Linux, Windows, or apple) for the kind of work I am doing is often a challenge and generally takes at least half a day if I am really lucky. I could just install over the top of 18.04, but that kind of defeats the fun and I like the idea of completely cleaning out cruft every now and then, so I plan to wipe the hard drive. I will continue to run into stuff I forgot for a few more days or even weeks. This is true even though I write down all the stuff I need. New thing just keep popping up.

I am all Linux all the time at both work and home. For the first time ever, I have no reason to ever boot to Windows and we avoid allowing the plague known as apple into the house. The guys at work mostly use Ubuntu, but I really like Xubuntu, mostly because its use changes only minimally. I always look forward to a new release and this one is no exception.