Have a look at this:
http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/dists/precise/

These are the repositories of Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).

But... if I change Ubuntu 11.10 repositories to Precise ones and then run the famous commands:


Will I get Ubuntu 12.04 as it is right now, or just a nuked system?

Don't think I'm idiot if this looks silly. I'm just a n00b.

I say this because some months ago, I upgraded Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04 on a computer by just changing repositories and running dist-upgrade. It nearly ended in a kernel panic... system was apparently nuked, but finally managed to make it work. Now works well.

You'll probably get either error messages or a nuked system, since 12.04 isn't even in alpha yet. I definitely do NOT recommend doing this. You upgraded to 10.04 after it was completed, right? This is an entirely different situation.

Yes of course.

It is obvious. Maybe if Canonical launches the alpha (I think it will be released soon) it will work.

Now it would be... a total waste of time.

Anyway, as I can see in the website, all "normal distro files" are there. The GPG key and the lists of packages.
This is the header of the Release file:
Origin: Canonical
Label: Partner archive
Suite: precise
Version: 12.04
Codename: precise
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2011 16:32:27 UTC
Architectures: amd64 armel i386 powerpc
Components: partner
Description: Ubuntu Precise 12.04

That means this is the partner repository... there are still some repositories missing.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!

Not necessarily. I run Debian wheezy on my main computer, and it hasn't been hosed yet. And wheezy's less far along its development cycle than Ubuntu 12.04... definitely was when I fisrt installed it, 'cause that was the day it forked from sid.

That said, I am prepared for a hose-down, and I do get a little nervous when the time of the week comes when I update and dist-upgrade.

Ubuntu's a lot more delicate at this point (says the guy who's seriously considering finding a different distro). I'm simply being cautious. Better an outdated system than an unusable one.

Well, I think I'm in no way upgrading Ubuntu - but what if I add the 12.04 repositories, without upgrading? We will at least see new Ubuntu packages Canonical has on the way.

Well, if you add the repo, it'll tell you to update whenever updated packages are added into the repo. I suppose it might be POSSIBLE to do a gradual upgrade, but even if you could do it without breaking your system I wouldn't recommend it. 12.04 is in alpha stage, and there's no point in going from a stable system to an alpha one unless you're a hardcore Ubuntu nut who always has to have the latest and greatest, no matter how buggy.

That's not me. I better desist.

And for me Ubuntu is getting worse as time passes.

I prefer GNOME 3 (for me, the best desktop environment for Linux ever published) in openSUSE than Unity.

I prefer Enlightenment, but it's hard to find a good e17 distro that I can work with.

gOS? Well... I said nothing. Their site is down. (see http://thinkgos.com/)

The systems that use Enlightenment are:
PCLinuxOS (it is great, really)
Sabayon (I downloaded it, but still have to install it)
Bodhi Linux (...what?)
Macpup (based on popular Puppy Linux)
Unite17 (looks good)
Elive (maybe the oldest one)
Pentoo (based on Gentoo)
MoonOS
YellowDog
OpenGEU

You can see screenshots and links to this 10 distros here: http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/2010/12/ten-linux-distros-that-use.html

I know which systems use Enlightenment. BTW, OpenGEU is dead unless they finally updated in the last few days. Elive is only free as a live system. Installing requires purchase. Unfortunately, OpenGEU is the only system in that list that I've found usable, and it's horrendously out of date.

PCLinuxOS is a good choice for me.

Anyway... I remember there was a nearly-Enlightenment Ubuntu environment: see netbook-launcher-efl package in normal repositories

It is like a port of the old GTK Netbook Launcher for Enlightenment.