Ubunut 12.04 beta2 to stable

[rubenmh]

I'm going to my aunt who lives 20 hours away from me, so I'm rarely there. she has had windows vista for 5 years and I shell installed Ubuntu for her. but I will use ubuntu 12.04 which is only in beta 2 then. If I installed beta 2, will it be updated through the update manager to Ubuntu 12.04 stabel??? (she is not good enough on the computer to do it another way.)

(Google translate)

[sammiev]

Ubunut 12.04 is Alpha2 not beta2. I'm using it and love it but it's to early to use it as a main OS for someone who knows little about Linux.

[rubenmh]

no i ment beta2 its mars 27 i think of. and i wonder wil beta update to stable with update manager

[sammiev]

I would not put it on a love ones computer till at least 3 months after the final release. Then again, that's me.

[mikewhatever]

A beta is still a beta, it evolves constantly, there will be tons of updates every day, things will likely break, and your aunt will hate you and Ubuntu.

[Mark Phelps]

+1 to the cautions everyone else has issued.

Pre-release software is KNOWN to contain bugs and to break easily. This is the worst possible way to introduce someone to a Linux distro.

I would agree that waiting several months AFTER initial release is the best approach. Every new release comes with bugs and testing can't possibly find and fix all of them prior to release.

Also, you would do best to FIRST, create two bootable disks or USB sticks, one with Ubuntu 12.04 on it, and another with Ubuntu 11.10 on it. Then, boot her PC from each one in turn, select the Try Ubuntu option -- and see how well each release detects the hardware and installs the proper drivers.

If you run into major problems (no video, bad video, no sound, no networking, etc.) with either version, then FORCING an install of Ubuntu on her is only going to leave her with a disfunctional machine -- and support from you 20 hours away!