You have many disparate issues here I want to address.
Ubuntu Server is (as far as is important for your use) just Ubuntu without the graphical desktop packages installed. That is to say, if you want a clean install of Ubuntu Server with a graphical desktop, you might as well just install the Ubuntu spin for that desktop (eg Ubuntu Mate, Kubuntu, etc) and then install things like LAMP (or whatever server tasks you need) with tasksel
or Apt.
The Ubuntu desktop of the 2010 era is long gone. It moved onto Unity. If you upgrade the ubuntu-desktop
metapackage will pull you onto Unity. You could just uninstall those packages before upgrading (and run an apt-get autoremove
) and then install whatever -desktop
metapackage (probably mate-desktop
) when you're done upgrading the core system.
10.10 has been dead for years. As has 11.04 and 11.10. You'll need to upgrade through all of those to get to 12.04 and from there you should be able to LTS-hop to 14.04. That's another reason for getting rid of any non-essential packages (less to upgrade).
Honestly, I'd be weighing up whether it's not best to back-up and do a fresh install of Ubuntu Mate (or whatever desktop spin takes your fancy - there are many now). It'll be much faster for you and will likely leave you with a better result.