Ubuntu versions: overview, features, types and reviews. How do I find out the version of Ubuntu?

Releases of Ubuntu occur every half year from Ltd - the original developer. Each new version of "Ubuntu", in addition to the title, uses the year and month of release as its serial number. The first release of the shell, for example, was called Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on October 20, 2004. Therefore, the numbers for future versions are preliminary; If the release is delayed until another month (or even a year) relative to the scheduled release, the distribution number will change accordingly.

How are the releases going?

Versions of Ubuntu are traditionally timed to the releases of GNOME (about a month later), which, in turn, are released about a month after the release of X.Org. As a result, in each release of "Ubuntu" there is a new version of GNOME and X.

Each fourth issue, coming out in the second quarter of every even year, acts as a distribution with long-term support. This means that these OS releases are developing and receiving updates for five years and have technical support from Canonical Ltd. These include versions of Ubuntu 6.06, 8.04, 10.04, 12.04, 14.04 and 16.04. However, all the distributions that came out before "Ubuntu 12.04"? Were only maintained for only three years.

Other versions, released before 13.04, as a rule, were maintained for 18 months and usually did not turn out to be obsolete until the next "long-playing" distribution. This has changed, however, since Ubuntu13.04 - the support period has been reduced by half, to 9 months.

Which version of Ubuntu is the newest?

To date, the latest release of this OS is Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Xenial Xerus. On October 21, 2015, developers announced that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will be called XenialXerus, or "friendly earth squirrel". This shell came out on April 21, 2016 and was immediately appreciated by experts. How can I characterize it?

The default desktop environment continues to be the same - Unity 7, with the ability to upgrade to version 8. The release adds support for cephalometric and ZFS file systems, LXD hypervisor (using Seccomp) for OpenStack, and support for Snappy packages. In addition, this operating system uses Systemd instead of Upstart as the initialization system.

This release replaced the software of the Ubuntu center with GNOME Software, and also fixed the flaws from the ISO file. As follows from the feedback of experts, Ubuntu Software Center has been an unsuccessful tool for a very long time. The current update has significantly improved the "Ubuntu" for each user.

It's also worth noting that Ubuntu 16.04 LTS does not support AMD Catalyst (fglrx) driver for AMD / ATI graphics cards, and instead recommends free software amdgpu Radeon. However, they can not provide optimal graphics performance.

The first release of this version of Ubuntu - 16.04.1 - will be available to all users from July 21, 2016.

The next expected release is "Ubuntu"

April 21, 2016, it was announced that Ubuntu 16.10 will be called Yakkety Yak, and the version will be released on October 20, 2016. This release will include the Unity 7 version, but will offer a choice of version 8, included in the ISO, so that users can decide on their own. Other announced improvements include a new version of Ubuntu software that will support faster downloads, better support for command line installation (only for applications without a graphical interface), support for installing fonts and multimedia codecs, and improved promotion of paid applications.

How do I find out the version of Ubuntu on my device?

Sometimes users forget which version of Ubuntu is running on their device. It will not be difficult to find out. Nida will describe how to do this from the command line and the graphical user interface.

Checking the version of Ubuntu from the terminal

This method will work no matter what version of OS and with what desktop environment you are working in Ubuntu Linux. The Russian version is checked in the same way.

First open the terminal. If you use Unity or another GUI, you can find an application called Terminal in LaunchPad.

After you open the command line, there is a simple command that you can use to find your version of "Ubuntu". This command looks like this: lsb_release -a.

After that, the line will display information about your operating system, including the number of the distribution.

Checking the Ubuntu version with Unity

If you use Unity, this task is greatly simplified. First, open the "System Settings" item from the desktop located in the Unity main menu. You can also go to "System Settings" in LaunchPad Unity, if this is easier for you. How do I find out the version of Ubuntu this way?

The system settings menu is a convenient way to perform many command-line functions directly from the graphical user interface. Adding users, installing updates, changing the time and so on - all this can be done from this menu. Click on the "Details" button, located under the "System settings" tab.

So you will see all the information about the version you are using "Ubuntu". This is a great place to not only see the information about the OS number, but also to find out how much RAM is on the device, what your CPU (GPU) and GPU (graphics) type is, and also the total amount of hard disk.

However, if you need the full number of your Linux Ubuntu version (for example, "14.04.3 LTS", and not just "14.04 LTS"), you will need to use the command line method described above. The GUI will not be able to help you.

How to update "Ubuntu" to the next version

Most users are interested in having an updated and up-to-date OS on their device. How does the Ubuntu version update?

First of all, you should remember that any upgrade, associated with the major releases of the operating system, carries the risk of failure, data loss or broken software configuration. Complex backup and extensive testing is strongly recommended in any case, even if you are an advanced user.

The following guide assumes that your device is running on Ubuntu 15.10, configured with Sudo privileges for administrative tasks.

Although many systems can be updated instantly without any problems, a safer solution is to go to the boot file of the new version, installing the distribution from scratch and setting up the services with thorough testing and import of application data as a separate step.

What do I need to know before updating?

Keep in mind that libraries, languages, and system services can change significantly. In Ubuntu 16.04 there have been important changes, compared to the previous release of LTS, which include the transition to the initialization of the Systemd system instead of Upstart, and the emphasis on supporting Python 3 and PHP 7 instead of PHP 5.

Before you begin to seriously upgrade any system, you need to make sure that you do not lose data if the update goes wrong. The best way to achieve this is to make a backup of the entire file system. Using Digital Ocean Droplet, you can use the simplest approach - turn off the system and make its image.

Before starting the update, it's safer to install the latest versions of all the packages for the current version. Start by updating the package list: Sudo update APT-Get.

You will be shown a list of updates that you can implement. Select the answer "yes" and press Enter. This process may take some time. After its completion, use the Dist-Upgrade command, which will perform updates related to changing the settings, adding or removing new packages as needed. For all system requests, answer "yes" and wait until the process is complete.

Now that you have the latest updates for Ubuntu 15.10, you can replace the OS with version 16.04. Download the tool to perform updates "Ubuntu". To do this, run the following command: sudo apt-get update.

Traditionally, Debian releases have been extended by changing the /etc/apt/sources.list APT, which defines package repositories. Ubuntu still works on the principles of Debian, so this process, most likely, still works without difficulties. Instead, however, it is desirable to use the tool provided by the Ubuntu project, which processes all checks for the new version, updates the sources.list, and performs a number of other tasks. This is the officially recommended way to upgrade the server, which must be performed through a remote connection.

Start by running the update without any options: sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.

If you are connected to your system via SSH (most likely you have a Digital Ocean Droplet), you will be asked if you want to continue. At the command prompt, type Y and press Enter to continue.

Next, you can be warned that a mirror entry was not found. On Digital Ocean systems, you can safely ignore this warning and continue the update, since the local mirror for 16.04 is actually available.

You will be asked "Do you want to overwrite the file 'sources.list'?" If you select "Yes", the operating system will be completely updated. If you select No, the update will be canceled.

After the new lists of packages are downloaded and the changes are tested, you will be prompted to start the update. Press Y to continue.

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Installing the update may take several hours. After the download is finished, the process can not be canceled.

After the new packages complete their installation, you will be asked if you are ready to remove the obsolete packages. On the command line without a user-defined configuration, this procedure must be secure. Click "yes". If you have upgraded the entire system to a large extent, you can enter d and check the list of packages that will be deleted.

Finally, if everything went well, you will be informed that the update is complete and you need to reboot. Enter Y to continue.

Completion

Wait for the computer to restart and reconnect. When you boot the system, you should see a message confirming that you are currently migrating to Xenial Xerus Ubuntu (stable version with support).

Now you must configure the working installation of Ubuntu 16.04. You will probably have to investigate the necessary configuration changes to services and deployed applications.