In the pub last night with a few like-minded computer cognoscenti, the discussion turned to the success of Ubuntu desktop linux, and whether or not it was ready for the server.
Whilst I've generally run Debian on servers with rock-solid performance and stability, on a personal server I've been experimenting with Ubuntu. I thought it was worth reporting that I smoothly upgraded that server tonight not just one release, but two releases, from 8.04 to 8.10 to 9.04. It required a couple of restarts - which generally is not ideal but doesn't matter much in a non-critical context. But that was all - and in less than an hour, I've got an up-to-date machine.
And yes, this is a long-winded way of saying "testing, testing, 1-2-3, is this thing working?"