[Installation] Kubuntu 16.04 Upgrade Question

[logan01]

Not that I plan on it but sometimes I just can't resist clicking. When I receive / install updates I always have that "wanna upgrade to 16.04? My questions are:

If I select that, does it just run its course and when finished, poof, I have 16.xx?
Is it as "stable" as my sweet 14.04?
Is there 16.04.1 available as I see with Ubuntu?
Is there one of those "try it out" versions available, downloadable to a flash drive?

I reckon that's about it at the moment.

Thanks.

[oshunluvr]

If I select that, does it just run its course and when finished, poof, I have 16.xx?

Poof? Personally, I don't do upgrades - I do a new install in parallel (to a different partition or subvolume). That way you have the old install as a backup in case the new one goes south or you just don't like it. If you choose the upgrade path, things sometimes aren't all hunky-dory.

Is it as "stable" as my sweet 14.04?

"Stable" as in daily usable - yes.

Is there 16.04.1 available as I see with Ubuntu?

When doing the install or upgrade, you'll automagically get the latest versions, so you'll get .1 without question.

Is there one of those "try it out" versions available, downloadable to a flash drive?

Yes, of course. Although "downloadable" to a flash drive isn't really what you need. It's more like "download then burn to a flash drive". I usually use dd for this, but this program looks interesting.

[logan01]

Thanks. I now see there's a .5 version in your provided link. Are those (in the link) the type when saved to a flash drive that provide the option of taking it for a spin first or is the real deal? I'd like to take it for a spin first. Thanks.

[oshunluvr]

Yeah, they're all just .iso files that can be burned to a flash drive or DVD-ROM and then booted to. From there, you can run the installer if you choose to do a new install. Obviously, to upgrade you'd have to reboot into your hard drive install and run do-release-upgrade.

As far as 14.04.5, if your current 14.04 is fully updated, you should already be at that level. My understanding is the .5 mostly means they've updated the .iso to included the upgraded stuff so there's less to upgrade after the install. Basically the 14.04.5 .iso contains everything that the original 14.04 .iso did, but upgraded to Aug 04, 2016 version levels.

[logan01]

Thanks. You're right. I was thinking 16.04.5. Duh.