You don't have to upgrade. Try it with a USB bootable stick.

Thanks for the suggestion ieee488, to clarify you mean go to the UBUNTU side and download and create a USB stick with 11 on it and then boot the notebook with it and install.  My only fear is problems with the hardware.  One time I tried to upgrade the original UBUNTU software using the package upgrade function and after the upgrade the network finder no longer worked.  I could no longer connect to wireless sites.  If the 11 version is good at hardware compatibility, then it should be OK.  I have the old stick I got from Dell that puts it back to factory version, so I guess there is nothing to worry about.  I guess my only question now is, is it worth it.  Is 11 worth the upgrade fro 8?

I mean you can create a USB stick and run from it. No need to install.

If you like it, install it.

I did that once on my D620.

Hi!

You seem to know something about linux.  I have an old Dell mini 9 with Ubuntu 8 like the person you responded to.  I've got a new netbook so want to format the hard drive on my old mini.  Boot and Nuke didn't work from the optical drive I attached via USB.  It got started but then crashed.  Maybe the mini's bios is too old;  the optical drive is new.  How do I format the mini's drive so I can give away or recycle the old netbook?

Thanks.

Hi! You seem to know something about linux.  I have an old Dell mini 9 with Ubuntu 8 like the person you responded to.  I've got a new netbook so want to format the hard drive on my old mini.  Boot and Nuke didn't work from the optical drive I attached via USB.  It got started but then crashed.  Maybe the mini's bios is too old;  the optical drive is new.  How do I format the mini's drive so I can give away or recycle the old netbook? Thanks.

You may have a failing hard drive.