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I have a new ASUS Vivobook laptop and am wondering which version of Ubuntu to install given that 18.04 LTS is scheduled for release at the end of this month.

I took a look at the Ubuntu releases page and did some research on upgrading to 18.04 and see it's possible to upgrade directly from 16.04 or 17.10.

However I was wondering if installing 18.04 beta 1 is perhaps an even better solution - will upgrading from the beta version to the stable version at the end of April be the easiest option?

If installing the beta version of 18.04 is not recommended, which will be a least error prone upgrade to 18.04 - 16.04 or 17.10?

Dagmar
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    Possible duplicate of What's the difference between a Long Term Support Release and a Normal Release? and What version of Ubuntu should I pick? I don't recommend installing a beta 18.04 release for daily use unless you want to encounter miserable package management issues. – karel Apr 06 '18 at 07:21
  • @karel what do you mean by miserable package management issues – Dagmar Apr 06 '18 at 08:33
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    @Dagmar I know what I know about miserable package management issues from testing alpha and beta Ubuntu releases in VirtualBox. Even after the Ubuntu release is officially released and the software updated, I continue to get all kinds of frequently occurring terminal error messages that I never get on my other Ubuntu systems. I repair the error messages and the apt commands work again, and then the next time I reboot the system and run a sudo apt command I get the same error messages again. – karel Apr 06 '18 at 08:38
  • This question is actually the one that is most similar to my question: https://askubuntu.com/questions/125487/upgrading-from-12-04-beta-2-to-stable-12-04?rq=1 – Dagmar Apr 07 '18 at 09:06
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    Now probably a dupe of https://askubuntu.com/questions/5675/i-installed-an-alpha-or-beta-am-i-up-to-date-with-the-final-release-if-i-keep-u – muru Apr 07 '18 at 09:09
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    Thanks for posting the links. Upgrading from 18.04 beta 1 to 18.04 final release is very easy to do. Just run the built-in Software Updater app. – karel Apr 07 '18 at 09:10

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It depends how important it is for you that computer works without errors. If you can't afford any glitches, then go for non beta version.

If it is OK that something might not work, you can install 18.04 beta and wait for the final release. I do it that way many times on a computer that may become unstable. I am running 18.04 on a laptop for a month now without any problems. Since 18.04 is in development you get lots of updates every day. I have never had problems going from beta to stable version as it is automatic. The last update on release date makes it stable.

nobody
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    Thanks, this answered my question exactly - especially the part about going from beta to stable automatically. – Dagmar Apr 06 '18 at 08:30