12.04 is an LTS anyway isn't it? It's good til April 2017 for patches/updates.
Also if you upgrade from an existing version, it doesn't replace your desktop does it?
I dunno what's wrong with CDE.. You crazy kids and your new fangled GUIs.
That said real men don't GUI
I'm involved in designing and building an "internal cloud" infrastructure at work - massive systems, massive virtualisation (SPARC based), heaps of custom shit. I've figured out how to do everything Oracle VM Manager can do via the command line and the API. I'm too lazy for button clicking, I type too fast