Upgrade Release Management – Am I Up to Date with Final Release if I Keep Upgrading Alpha or Beta?

General Alpha Information

If you've been redirected here you've probably asked a question about an Alpha or Beta release of Ubuntu.

Generally speaking we don't take questions about running or using unreleased versions of Ubuntu releases here since development releases change almost by the hour and usually it's broken and alpha testers are expected to give direct feedback to the developers via the bug tracker so that these issues can be fixed for everyone.

It's not that we don't care, we just wouldn't be good at it and one of the main purposes of the site is to create a reusable resource for users, which would be hard if we had a bunch of questions about something that quickly became out of date!

The answers in this question will help you get started, good luck, and thanks for testing!

File bugs

You should file bugs for the relevant package that you are having problems with. Bugs are one of the main advantages of having developer releases - they provide valuable information to the developers and help them to improve the software.

How do I report a bug?

If you are unsure which package to file the bug against, please use the other resources (forums, mailing lists etc.) to ask which package you should file it against.

Debugging Information will help you file bugs.

These versions are not considered stable. So, using them is risky. The probability of getting into trouble is bigger, and this is the reason Not to use them.

The reasons to use them are:

• You start using more recent software earlier. So, in most cases you will enjoy a more modern software ecosystem.
• You get the possibility of helping the project better, since you are then able to report problems with the Alpha, Beta and RC versions.

As for me, given that I am a programmer and that I am highly dependent of my computer to work, I always use the Stable Release. Though, in my private computer I enable the proposed and backports repositories, so I am able use the most recent (and unstable) software (for which I can report problems too). At my job's workstation I only use the regular repositories.

While I was a student I always used the beta release, and it was once problematic when trying to upgrade it.

edit: There is a third option: You can also stick to the LTS releases and just update LTS releases. This is the least-maintenance-requiring option.