I installed Ubuntu 26.04 Beta (released today) via terminal commands on a laptop that I reserve for experiments such as this.
The install went smoothly but several steps (mainly things related to snaps) took longer than expected. I was concerned that the process had stalled but running “top” in a separate terminal window showed that activity was continuing. Being an impatient fellow I finally had to leave the room and do some other work to distract myself but all was well in the end. My installed apps and data were preserved.
Here is a link to the most complete and clear set of instructions I found:
Upgrades in general tend to have trouble with anything installed outside the package system… eg my printer drivers.
That said, upgrades are getting better … distro makers seem to be learning all the tricks to make upgrades reliable.
That said, a backup before an upgrade is a good idea.
For clarity, the usual convention is to wait until the first point release of a new Ubuntu version drops (ie 26.04.1 in this case). It is only after that, the upgrade path to Ubuntu 26.04 will be available.
This is is scheduled for August 6, 2026. Until then, users are advised that they should wait for this release before upgrading from earlier versions,