Being possessed of a masochistic streak, I decided that since a new
version of Ubuntu Linux was available, I would upgrade.
In a country where broadband internet access is taken for granted, this
would be a simple task of using the smart upgrade feature of Synaptic,
waiting a few moments for everything to download and install, and smiles
all round. Of course, even in that telecoms utopia, something would
probably go wrong, thus breaking one’s entire system and forcing a
complete re-installation (a.k.a. very bad things).
Telecoms Utopia is not a term with which sane people would describe
South Africa. Fortunately the fine people running the Ubuntu show know
that the world is not confined to Europe and North America. Gloriously
they sent me installation discs, free of charge. Hell, they sent me as
many as I’d like, so that I could distribute them, free of charge.
I am growing weary with this post as it is growing longer than intended.
The rest of the tale will be related using short sentences and where
ever possible, monosyllablic words.
I put disc in Pee See. I show Syn Ap Tic disc. I change all old re pos
it or ree to new ver shun. I smart up grade. It down load some pack age.
It take two days. It up grade. It no break Pee See.
I much glad! Vi va Ooh Boon Too! Vi va ANC!
The Waffle Group 
Lucky you.
After attempting an upgrade, mine progressed down ever deepening spirals of unhappiness until we arrived at the always-a-hoot “unrecoverable kernel panic” stage.
A clean install, followed by much pain downloading packages I had just got nicely humming along on 5.04, was the only remedy.
Having said all that, 5.10 is considerably more polished.