Can I jump from 12.04 to 14.04?

[quailwoods]

I would like to go from 12.4 to 14.4 without having to do the intermediate steps. Would I have to do it through unetbootin or can I just uninstall 12.4 and install 14.4? I don't suppose there's a chance of migrating my files. . .

[kansasnoob]

According to the Release Announcement:

Users of Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.10 will be offered an automatic upgrade to 14.04 LTS via Update Manager shortly. Users of 12.04 LTS will be offered the automatic upgrade when 14.04.1 LTS is released, which is scheduled for July 24th.

I personally prefer fresh installations to upgrades, but regardless one should always back up any important data before undertaking either.

[Rob Sayer]

+1 on backups. Always back up data before updating your release.

I prefer doing a clean reinstall too. Ultimately it causes fewer problems, it's more reliable, and your system is less cluttered.

Also, I highly recommend installing with a separate partition for /home, but it may not be doable on a dual boot linux/windows setup (not enough partitions available). if possible you can reinstall, keeping all your data and user settings. Though you should still back them up of course ...

[mastablasta]

upgrade notificaiton will be triggered when 14.04.1 comes out. but you can trigger it now if you want and do the upgrade. i did it on 3 mashcines and it the upgrade itself was a smooth ride on all of them (Kubuntu). The process improved a lot from 2010...

[grahammechanical]

An upgrade through the Update Manager will not affect data but a re-install will put data files at risk unless they are on a separate partition to Ubuntu. In my opinion people have problems with the first reboot after upgrading because the OS is not in a default configuration.

Use Additional Drivers to activate an open source video driver. Set a default theme. Un-install/remove any alternative desktop environments. Make the system as default as possible

Regards.