How safe is it to use the "ubuntu+1"?

Question

How safe is it to have a system like that - always on "ubuntu+1" (or Debian sid, for that matter)?

Answer 1

If you do not care about being unable to boot to desktop, if you aren't afraid of being forced to manually fix the X server, if you do not have any data you cannot easily restore in case it was totally erased, if you feel adventurous enough to be affected by tons of bugs still present in Quantal, if you can stand serious crashes from time to time, then do upgrade to ubuntu+1.

(well, seriously, some people, including me, enjoy the above.)

If you want to contribute and write some code to help working on, for example, Unity, then do upgrade.

Remember - alpha and beta software is by its nature will contain bugs. Only upgrade if you are content with helping out finding and reporting bugs.

Also remember that downgrading back to a stable release isn't trivial:

• How to roll back Ubuntu to a previous version?

Otherwise stick with the official release schedule and install when the stable release is available.

Answer 2

That's a bad idea unless the main goal is to work on developing Ubuntu -- in which case it is a very good idea. I installed Oneiric on my desktop a couple of days ago, and I was unable to get a login screen. I was able to get the desktop up in failsafe X (800x600) once, but not twice. What is safe about using Ubuntu alphas, is betting that it will break.

This cycle has been particularly bumpy though, because of fairly massive changes in the underlying technologies. But I suspect it will begin to settle soon. For me, alpha 3 has been an interesting time to start testing, but it all depends on what kind of breakages you're comfortable with. Obviously, there is nothing wrong with running it in parallel for a while so you can see for yourself. Once you get a good feeling for it, you can make an informed decision about how early you want to upgrade.

Answer 3

I have tested Alpha/Beta releases since 10.04 and I have to tell you that, even though 12.10 is still in Beta (Today Beta 2 will come out), I am really amazed at the fact that, even in Beta stage, it works perfect. There are minor details and apport will pop up to tell you about them but all in general, it feels like everything is in place.

I should mention this is the first time for me that a Beta release has worked great. I still have nightmares over 11.10 or below. Even Beta versions of 12.04 had very bad problems, but right now, after testing it in 3 PCs I don't even notice the fact that it is still Beta because it works great.

But aside from my experience, since this IS a Beta version, it would depend on your hardware and how you will use Ubuntu:

• Will it it be for a production system (VERY bad idea to use a Beta)
• will it be for your home system (Remember to backup everything you charish)
• will it be for testing it (By all means do it).

So it depends on your usage as an end user and not so much for the features it brings (Even though they are eye candy to see, kernel panics are not if you get one)

What I recommend is to wait for the final release. IF you still want to try it out, then there is the ISO/Torrent image to download and use it as a LiveCD/LiveUSB. That way you will have an idea of how it will behave on your PC.

Answer 4

Well first I recommend doing an sudo apt-get update followed by a sudo apt-get upgrade of the 12.10 version. That should take care of having the system up to date.

Then do the command you mention in your question and yes, update manager will appear saying:

Hey dude! Ubuntu 13.04 is available. Would you like to take the blue pill or the red pill

If you upgrade to 13.04, it will download around 700 MB and upgrade/remove/install a lot of stuff. After a reboot you should have 13.04 running on your system. For the question whether it is safe or not we need to remember this is an Development version, which means is not ready yet. I am testing it right now since in Google Plus I was following a couple of Ubuntu developers and one of them was testing it saying it was working perfectly. I got curious and went ahead.

I have to say, this is the first version I have tried where, if I get an error, it goes back to 12.10 so I can correct the problem (In my case it was the Nvidia drivers). That was the only problem. After that, I am writing to you right now from 13.04 which is running much better than even the stable 12.10. Note that this is NOT FOR PRODUCTION, nor it should substitute the STABLE VERSION. If you upgrade to it, you are just simply testing the 13.04 which your current hardware and checking how the progress is doing.

I upgraded 2 of my PCs with no problems at all. I even went psycho on 13.04 and added the PPA for Xorg Edge and other very bleeding edge PPAs (I have latest xorg with latest nvidia card.. and am scared!!). Nothing apart from the repositories going wild has happened.

So.. is it safe?. Depends totally on your hardware and what package errors you get on the upgrade process (Only 1 in my case as I said before). If you know how to use the terminal and several commands of Ubuntu and you are not a beginner with Ubuntu, then by all means, take it for a test drive. If not, hold on and wait for the final 13.04 release.

Answer 5

I'm a bit of a rebel and I installed Ubuntu 12.04 Alpha 1 and I have not had any issues with the stability from day 1, so my guess is that Beta 1 is going to be a rock...

But honestly, living on the edge if you have critical data on your computer is not the best idea in the world.

I'd say install the stable release of Ubuntu 11.10, and just wait for 6 weeks for the stable release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

Answer 6

It all depends when you upgrade. Alpha 1 is often highly unstable and I'm told not many developers run it on their main machines. Beta 1 is pretty usable if you're prepared to work on some bugs. After the final beta, it's very nearly as stable as the final release.