Upgrade to 12.10 or stick to the stable 12.04 LTS?

[Marzata]

Are you planning to upgrade to *buntu 12.10 or stick to the stable *buntu 12.04 LTS? Why or why not?

[rai4shu2]

I'm sticking with 12.04. Anything I need upgraded I can already find in a PPA or compile it, myself.

[Lightstar]

Moving up to 12.10.
I don't like being left behind, I trust myself enough to deal with little bugs that might pop along the way :)

I also love shiny new things!

[Welly Wu]

At this point, I have mixed feelings and thoughts about upgrading to any non LTS Ubuntu release. It is clear that Ubuntu 12.10 will ship with Unity 6.6 which is very significantly much slower than Unity 5.6 in 12.04.x LTS. The other problem is determining whether I need the new features at all. I rarely use Ubuntu Unity nowadays. Most of the new features like previews, Amazon searches, new Unity lenses, desktop web apps, etc. require that I use the newer and much slower version of Ubuntu Unity.

As it stands right now, I can simply search for a specific Ubuntu PPAs and add the new software feature or capability to Ubuntu 12.04.1 64 bit LTS. If I upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10, 13.04, 13.10 64 bit, then I will have to enable all of my favorite PPAs and do another major update.

Finally, I use VM Ware Workstation 9.0.0 64 bit. It is designed to work with Linux kernel 3.4.x. I am using Linux kernel 3.3.6-030306 right now. If I upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit, then it will ship with Linux kernel 3.5.x. VM Ware Workstation 9 will break without downloading and applying an unofficial third-party patch. I am not looking forward to doing this every 6 months.

LTS guarantees reliability and stability along with speed and performance. It also gets up to 5 years of support. Those are considerable factors to consider before upgrading to a non LTS release.

[vasa1]

I'm moving to 12.10 when the RC is available.
Clean install. New home. New everything. (I will obviously back up my data.)
I haven't really made up my mind whether it's going to be Lubuntu or Xubuntu for my oldish laptop.

[MdMax]

I think I'll stick with 12.04 LTS. ;)

[bakelitedoorbell]

Staying with 12.04 for now. I generally don't upgrade unless I have a reason to. Such as a software I want to use requires the newer OS. Everything I currently use works fine.

[Elfy]

Staying with 12.04 for now. I generally don't upgrade unless I have a reason to. Such as a software I want to use requires the newer OS. Everything I currently use works fine.

Excellent username - cheered me up for no apparent reason :)

[Paqman]

Bit of both:

Desktop: Upgrade to 12.10 to get the new shiny.

Netbooks: Stay on 12.04 as they've inexplicably ditched Unity 2D.

HTPC: Stay on 12.04 as it's basically an appliance so only ever runs LTS.

VPS: Stay on 12.04. Server = LTS IMO.

[neu5eeCh]

Staying on 12.04 for the foreseeable future, but I use Xubuntu.

When GIMP was updated, I recall that the newer version wouldn't work on 11.10, only 12.04. If something like that were to happen again, I might be persuaded to upgrade, but I'll avoid it if I can. My philosophy is like rai4shu2's.

[vasa1]

Excellent username - cheered me up for no apparent reason :)
Nothing ... special ;)

[Mikeb85]

Upgrading is more fun :p

[Rodney9]

Xubuntu 12.04.1 LTS will stay for a while on my laptop.

I'm playing with 12.10 beta 2 on a separate partition and I like it as it sees my Sony xperia phone.

Rodney

[Erik1984]

Upgrade, but maybe not immediately. I simply can't resist an upgrade of my applications to a newer version and KDE 4.9.x of course.

[Mikeb85]

Well, I upgraded to Quantal Quetzal prematurely, and it's actually a very nice distro. Not a whole lot of upgrades over 12.04 (that I can see anyway). Seems a little quicker, not a fan of the Amazon results in dash, but they introduced a new privacy menu that makes disabling such things easy. Also introduces the ability to control exactly what actions the OS tracks, and what it doesn't.

Overall more of the same, but even in Beta 2 status seems fast and stable.

[Welly Wu]

Mikeb85:

You don't find Unity 6.6 to be much slower?

[lancest]

12.10 is providing better performance on my netbook(s).
The vga drivers are improved, better with HD.
Unity in 12.04 has useful GDocs integration, and other nice touches.
Switched everything.

[kio_http]

If I used Ubuntu. definitely 12.10 as it seems faster on my netbook. Unity does not work for me and my least favourite aspect is lack of customization and the inability to move the dock/launcher (even Windows and OS X allow this).

Since I use Kubuntu though, 12.10 definitely makes sense as I need the lastest KDE versions available. And with KDE 4 in general, the higher the version, the better the performance. KDE 4.9.1 is extremely snappy on my netbook for me. The new features such as GTK 3 integration in Kubuntu are interesting.

[Welly Wu]

I may upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit then. I don't use VM Ware Workstation 9.x 64 bit anymore as I don't have any guest virtual machines. I deleted Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit completely. I can switch to Oracle VM Virtualbox if I need to install a guest virtual machine in the future, but it won't be Windows 8 Pro 64 bit.

I hope that Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit will be noticeably faster. I might upgrade to the latest Beta 2 version tonight. How do I do this?

[Welly Wu]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/QuantalUpgrades

I'll do this in about one hour from now.

[Welly Wu]

The upgrade process failed twice. It says that this may happen when trying to upgrade to a pre-release version of Ubuntu which I am trying to do so.

I think that I will stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x 64 bit LTS. Seems simpler and less problematic.

[Paqman]

The upgrade process failed twice. It says that this may happen when trying to upgrade to a pre-release version of Ubuntu which I am trying to do so.

I think that I will stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x 64 bit LTS. Seems simpler and less problematic.

I've never tried to do an upgrade to the dev branch, sounds like a recipe for trouble. Try it again when it's actually released and it'll probably work fine.

[DarkAmbient]

I'm gonna install 12.10 on my fiances computer in a few hour. Hopefully 12.10 won't result to one of those sleep-on-the-couche-period... ;)

[Mikeb85]

I've never tried to do an upgrade to the dev branch, sounds like a recipe for trouble. Try it again when it's actually released and it'll probably work fine.

It's always worked for me, just takes forever. 12.04 to 12.10 took about 3 hours...

[Mikeb85]

Mikeb85:

You don't find Unity 6.6 to be much slower?

Not at this stage of development, no.

[jrog]

I upgraded from 12.04 to 12.10 Beta about a week or two ago. The upgrade process was simple and quick, and 12.10 has been excellent for me, performance-wise and otherwise. Maybe I am just extremely lucky. I am definitely extremely happy. :)

[exploder]

I decided to stay with 12.04 on my HP desktop and go with 12.10 on my HP DV6 laptop. I like the long term support 12.04 has but my laptop has ATI discrete graphics and 12.10 runs much beeter on it.

[USAGeorge]

Two reasons why I'm not going to upgrade.
1st. I'm a new OLD kid on the block and feel I've still a lot to learn just on the fundamental level.
2d. Over the years I've found it's best to let the better swimmers jump into the water first. When the "ALL CLEAR" signal is given: I'll get my feet wet.

[Jakin]

I decided to stay with 12.04 on my HP desktop and go with 12.10 on my HP DV6 laptop. I like the long term support 12.04 has but my laptop has ATI discrete graphics and 12.10 runs much beeter on it.


I have an ATI discrete graphics as well; 12.10 really plays better? (i have space- i'll give it a go on another partition)


I figured with all the jumping i have done with versions of Ubuntu this past year, since finally upgrading from Natty- that 12.04LTS (12.04.1 currently) everything is smooth and no fuss from day to day, so i may as well stick with it.

[Welly Wu]

There must be something wrong with the Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit Beta 2. I can't do an upgrade to it and I can't boot off the .ISO image file in Virtualbox or VM Ware Workstation either. I don't think that it's ready for prime time until the official release on October 18th, 2012.

I think that I am going to stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x 64 bit LTS. Upgrading to 12.10 64 bit or 13.04 or 13.10 64 bit will be a pain in the butt and I don't want anything to break prematurely.

[MG&TL]

Mikeb85:

You don't find Unity 6.6 to be much slower?

1) It's 6.8 now.

2) Why would it be?


There must be something wrong with the Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit Beta 2. I can't do an upgrade to it and I can't boot off the .ISO image file in Virtualbox or VM Ware Workstation either. I don't think that it's ready for prime time until the official release on October 18th, 2012

Given that it's 12 days until release, if there's something wrong with it, virtualised, you need to report a bug now, or it's not likely to get fixed. Be a good free software citizen. :)

[Welly Wu]

One thing to keep in mind is that Canonical will support Ubuntu 12.04.x 32 and 64 bit LTS for up to five years until April 2017. This means that if you plan to keep your PC hardware over a long period of time, then you should stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x LTS. Of course, you can upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit LTS in April 2014, but the PC hardware requirements may be considerably higher to support new features and your older PCs might not meet the recommended hardware requirements at that time in the future. My past experience with Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit LTS on my previous ASUS notebook PC was such that it was safe to upgrade to 12.04 64 bit LTS on the same computer without noticeably worse performance. I bought my ASUS N61JV-X2 notebook PC in August 2010 from Amazon. It is now dead and recylced.

If you keep upgrading to newer Ubuntu versions, then stuff will break especially if you have custom configured servers that host to many different client PCs. The other thing is that you'll be upgrading every 6 months to 18 months to stick with a currently supported Ubuntu release if it is not a LTS release.

You should weigh the options carefully and determine what is best for your situation. I want to keep using my current System76 lemu4 for the next four years which means that I plan to stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x 64 bit LTS until at least April 2014. Depending upon the hardware requirements of Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit LTS, I may decide to upgrade or stick with 12.04.x 64 bit LTS.

Downgrading to an older version of Ubuntu can be done, but it is better to make a decision to stick with a specific version so long as it is currently supported over a longer period of time.

[KiwiNZ]

I will move to 12.10, it will be a clean install not an upgrade. I only see the importance of LTS in an enterprise environment.

[Erik1984]

One thing to keep in mind is that Canonical will support Ubuntu 12.04.x 32 and 64 bit LTS for up to five years until April 2017. This means that if you plan to keep your PC hardware over a long period of time, then you should stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x LTS. Of course, you can upgrade to Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit LTS in April 2014, but the PC hardware requirements may be considerably higher to support new features and your older PCs might not meet the recommended hardware requirements at that time in the future. My past experience with Ubuntu 10.04 64 bit LTS on my previous ASUS notebook PC was such that it was safe to upgrade to 12.04 64 bit LTS on the same computer without noticeably worse performance. I bought my ASUS N61JV-X2 notebook PC in August 2010 from Amazon. It is now dead and recylced.

If you keep upgrading to newer Ubuntu versions, then stuff will break especially if you have custom configured servers that host to many different client PCs. The other thing is that you'll be upgrading every 6 months to 18 months to stick with a currently supported Ubuntu release if it is not a LTS release.

You should weigh the options carefully and determine what is best for your situation. I want to keep using my current System76 lemu4 for the next four years which means that I plan to stick with Ubuntu 12.04.x 64 bit LTS until at least April 2014. Depending upon the hardware requirements of Ubuntu 14.04 64 bit LTS, I may decide to upgrade or stick with 12.04.x 64 bit LTS.

Downgrading to an older version of Ubuntu can be done, but it is better to make a decision to stick with a specific version so long as it is currently supported over a longer period of time.

I don't see Ubuntu becoming much heavier the coming years, only for hardware that now relies on Unity 2D (as that will be dropped in favor of running compositing effects on the CPU). But those machines are probably better of with XFCE or LXDE already.

[georgelappies]

Had it been a few years back I would have installed the latest alpha version as soon as it is ready. Not having as much free time available these days anymore to help resolve 'issues' I will stick with 12.04.x LTS versions.

It runs very smooth on my hardware as well as everything is working exactly as it should :)

[mattrudlles]

I haven't noticed too much of a slow down. In fact I expected it with the current version being beta. I must admit, I'm not that impressed with preview, but I am liking the new minimise animations. Only been using it for a few hours now, so will be able to give a more detailed answer later on.

I'm running 12.10 on a Dell 1345 laptop. I think that is a fair indication of an underpowered machine when compared to machines that are 2 + years old.

[kurt18947]

BOTH!! There's nothing that says I can only have one O.S. installed. I'm using 12.10 quite a lot now and reporting bugs. I still have 12.04 for when I need to do something where a system problem would ruin my day.

[Randymanme]

I just updated Precise, restarted, and now none of Ubuntu or Gnome function -- only Cinnamon 1.6 (which I'm using now). I suppose this means that I may as well upgrade -- maybe Unity will work, then.

Can I initiate a dist-upgrade from Cinnamon?

[Artemis3]

I need a current kernel (or at least 3.4+) to properly use a hardware device, been trying to use quantal kernel in precise, but nvidia breaks. This might force me to go with 12.10.

[jrog]

I need a current kernel (or at least 3.4+) to properly use a hardware device, been trying to use quantal kernel in precise, but nvidia breaks. This might force me to go with 12.10.
Same here, substituting "Intel HD 4000" for nvidia. This did cause me to go with 12.10, which, as I said earlier, has been excellent.

[dniMretsaM]

I'll be upgrading on release day. I'll seed the Kubuntu 12.10 torrent for a few days as well.

[OrangeCrate]

The office computer will remain LTS versions, as it has since Dapper. I'll burn a disk, and see how my laptop (T43) likes the new Xubuntu release. If it does, I'll probably keep it, if not, I'll reinstall 12.04, and leave well enough alone.

[will1982]

I'll check the initial reviews. If any speed improvements, I hit the button immediately. I'm OCD about speed. And battery life.

But I do love my good 'ol stable LTS.

[offgridguy]

By the way, what does LTS stand for?

[mamamia88]

By the way, what does LTS stand for?

long term support and as the name implies you get support for longer than a normal release

[james64468]

I been enjoying Ubuntu 12.10 so much I made it my only operation system. I am going to be building another pc AMD computer and going to install 12.10 on it as well.

[will1982]

long term support and as the name implies you get support for longer than a normal release

LTS is also supposedly more stable

[mamamia88]

LTS is also supposedly more stable

if you really cared about stability there are more stable distros but honestly most distros are plenty stable right now. i say go for the upgrade because you will always wonder what it's like until you eventually do. or at least that's how i used to be.

[Sef]

long term support and as the name implies you get support for longer than a normal release


NonLTS support is for 18 months.

LTS support is for 5 years. (Starting with 12.04. Before that it was 5 years for the server and 3 years for the desktop.)

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

been using xubuntu 12.10 beta for about a week almost full time now
issues i have:
file roller is not reliable (extract here from right clicking file makes it crash)
monitor will not turn off
backlight will not auto dim
separate X displays on multiple monitors does not work (nvidia drivers)
unable to change mouse pointer icon (i changed it in 4 places and it still switches back and forth)

still using 10.04 on my desktop, have not finished switching to12.04 on it

[Paqman]

LTS is also supposedly more stable

"Stable" is one of those words that's used to mean so many things it's almost meaningless.

In the context of an Ubuntu LTS what "stable" means is "doesn't need to be updated for a long time". It doesn't necessarily imply that there are less bugs (although they do test it a little more before release). Towards the end of a five-year cycle keeping an old LTS desktop working well could actually be a lot more work than a newer version.

The advantage of LTS is that it allows you to set up a machine that doesn't need to be messed about with for a long time. IMO that's less useful to most desktop users than it is on a server or an "appliance-like" machine such as an HTPC. It's designed to appeal mostly to enterprise users who want to know that if they throw a large chunk of money at something they can rely on it for a decent chunk of time.

[vasa1]

Backed up everything and did a clean install of Lubuntu QQ beta 2.

[Docaltmed]

As always, staff and server stick with the LTS.

Me, I like to play around...12.10 for me.

[Welly Wu]

I learned another hard lesson last night. Stick to the defaults as closely as possible. I had to re-install Ubuntu 12.04 64 bit LTS using the Alternative Install ISO file and I setup full disk encryption. I also upgraded to Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit Beta 2. It's quite nice. I like the new look and feel and the new features are nifty. There are some known bugs that still need to get fixed, but it's working pretty well for me so far. Ubuntu Unity is quite usable and it is features richer now. I thought that it would be much slower and less responsive, but it feels quite snappy and it is responsive. I like the tighter integration with social media and Ubuntu One. It's easier now. The Unity Launcher can be further configured to meet my specific needs. I have not tried out the Amazon search feature yet, but I am highly enthused because I am a big Amazon customer. Otherwise, not a whole lot of other new features have been added which I think that I can find to be useful right away.

I decided to upgrade to a non LTS pre-release version because I realized that I am not an enterprise user and I value new features and cutting edge software more than stability and long term service.

I am not going to add any more PPAs. I only have the official System76 PPA so that I can install the driver for my System76 Lemur Ultra Thin (lemu4) notebook PC when Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit is officially released on October 18th, 2012. That's it. I ran into a lot of problems with my previous installation by adding way too many PPAs and going overboard with customization. I am really going to try hard to stick to the defaults as much as possible with very few and minor modifications or tweaks on my part. I want to be able to upgrade to future Ubuntu releases smoothly.

It's really nice. I am looking forward to the final stable release version next Thursday.

[Welly Wu]

What makes Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit worth the upgrade for me:

1. Amazon searches are integrated into Ubuntu Unity. This makes shopping a lot easier for me especially for music CDs.

2. More social media accounts available and Ubuntu Unity desktop web apps integration. This makes a more seamless web browsing experience that is tied into the operating system itself. Web sites feel like desktop apps now.

3. A richer Ubuntu Unity experience that can be customized to meet my needs and preferences. More lenses make searching for apps and data more cogent. Previews make apps stand out. Faster performance makes it more responsive.

4. Ubuntu Software Center is faster and there are more software applications to search for and to install

5. Ubuntu One permits granular file sharing with more users and I can add specific folders or files to my personal cloud. This makes cloud integration and synchronization easier and more complete.

6. Cleaner and more modern look and feel. There are fewer icons and buttons to click and there are more features that are better organized into each button so I can scroll and select the specific function that I want to execute.

7. Faster speed and better performance overall. Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit is smoother and it is more fluid and responsive. This translates to a better Ubuntu user experience especially on modern PC hardware.

There are also some minuses to consider:

1. Less stability and reliability. More software applications crash more frequently and randomly with Beta 2 release.

2. No killer new features that are must haves.

3. 18 months of support.

4. Nautilus crashes more frequently especially during large and extended file transfers.

5. Ubuntu Unity launcher has more buttons to click with desktop web apps integration. This makes adding, organizing, and scrolling through the launcher more cumbersome.

6. Dash has more lenses that have redundancy and overlap of features. There is a finer level of organization with more lenses, but each one needs more features or greater refinements to improve usefulness.

7. Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit breaks compatibility with third party software applications like VM Ware Workstation 9.x 64 bit and Codeweavers CrossOver for Linux 64 bit. I am getting more bugs while trying to install guest virtual machines or Microsoft Windows software applications.

Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit is a nice upgrade to have, but it is not a must have. It's entirely optional. If you don't use social media or Ubuntu One that much, then it's not worth the upgrade at all. If you need long term service and support, then forget it.

If you purchase a new PC with UEFI and Secure Boot technologies, then Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit becomes almost mandatory if you plan to install it alongside Microsoft Windows 8 in a dual-boot configuration. Good luck on making those two new operating systems work together in harmony.

Bottom line: it's optional, but it's nice to have if you run Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit in a guest virtual machine or in a dual-boot configuration.

[Welly Wu]

Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit Beta 2 has a known bug: the Unity Greeter does not allow me to change desktop environments. This is being worked on right now and a patch or update should be pushed out to fix this problem by the time that the Release Candidate is available this Thursday. It's only four more days so it's not a big problem for me. I just thought that I would mention it to others trying out Beta 2.

[eggsbenedict]

Although I've been using Ubuntu since version 09.10, I still consider myself very new to the tech. Mainly because I don't wander too far away from what the system offers OTB, and if need be, the community support forms are incredibly helpful when I do stray.

Anyway, I, too, am having trouble deciding on if I should upgrade. Right now, I'm leaning toward not. On my netbook, I use unity 2d, and I am worried about hardware requirements to run 12.10 smoothly. In this respect, I've largely grown apprehensive about future ubuntu releases because of the aforementioned graphical requirements. If my 2010 HP laptop came with windows 7 installed and ran without a hitch, why can't Ubuntu 3d run just as well?

As this computer becomes more obsolete in the future, I may go to xubuntu or lubuntu, but 2d works for me right now, and I've gotten tweaked it to the point where it runs flawlessly AND looks great.

[Welly Wu]

Another thing that I noticed is that the Handbrake PPA is not updated for Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit Beta 2. I need this PPA to install Handbrake to rip, encode, and compress DVD-Videos that I own. I guess that I will have to wait until the official release date to check back again.

[Welly Wu]

I learned yet another hard lesson tonight: don't go crazy with the security on a Beta 2 or a release. I installed ninja and locked out my administrator account. I had to re-install everything from scratch again and I just got done finishing that task.

I am really sticking to the defaults now.

[nothingspecial]

Nothing ... special ;)

huh, what ?

[Elfy]

Closed.

This was a general thread about a recurring theme.

@wellywu - if you have issues with the dev version - the thing to do is post in the dev forum - report issues as bugs as well.