[Evolution] Upgrade from RH8,evo1.0.8

["Barry" <bpelham consolidated net>]

Digging deep here, I noted some November '07 info from Steven Rainwater and
Patrick O'Callaghan in November, upgrading from 1.4.6 to 2.12.1, all in
Redhat format;  my project attempt is from RH8, version 1.0.8 to the latest
in Ubuntu.  I think I'm into something over my head.  I don't know what
Maildir is, nor mh nor mbox.  I'm not able to poke around in source code; I
don't use SpamAssasin - probably should.  And, of course, I have tons of
mail I don't want to lose.  Would I be ahead to set up a local SMTP server,
and mail myself stuff from box A to box B?  Or is there something easy here?
My setup in 1.0.8 is strictly defaults, whatever they are.  No contacts,
just mail  TIA , Barry