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,
That is far to high a demand for linux…. If they cannot make it under 4 they are going to have problems with older boxes. Especially if you start running demanding apps such as gimp on it. Not to mention games and graphics.
it seems 6GB is for the snap world … wondered why Ubuntu insist with snap …
Anyway I have the intention to install in Peace Ubuntu Desktop 24.04.4 in peace
If later Ubuntu 26.04.x is a big problem there is Debian …
I am not sure if this new release (Ubuntu 26.04.x) impacts drastically to Linux Mint too. According with my understanding it is based on Ubuntu. Am I correct?
You are correct linux mint is based on ubuntu for cinammon mate and xfce but they also offer a debian version lmde. They continue with that in case there is an issue in the future with ubuntu. Perhaps thus is the time, but last I read that is not scheduled until Christmas time.
I personnaly now prefer using lmde for myself and my clients.
Yes, MX is based on Debian … you can use apt command
It also has a GUI software updater.
You get access to all the same Debian software, plus some software inherited from antiX, plus some MX tools.
MX offers choice of systemd or sysvinit … you can boot with either init system.
I will probably be distrohopping again if I want a more up to date Linux desktop - because I’m not ready for Wayland - and Ubuntu 26.04 has completely dropped X11/xorg for Gnome…
I’ll probably still opt for a Debian based distro…
We all tend just to say debian but when you install you de get a large choice of desktop environments possible to choose from
Xfce mate gnome etc
Makes you wonder if the others are worth it ?
Although last time I tried it took some working out which I wanted as found it not clear and for a new started, how do they know needs a bit of work on help system perhaps showing examples on install.
Its this screen, ok older version, but you select one or all and any in between ….. its not like at this stage you know linux, thats why I suggest new users go for mint, only questions to answer is your name and a password, everything else can be confusing and why so many say linux needs command line knowledge, ok 12 months down the line you may want a changé and its painless.
The Figure shown/shared (being practicall the same as I saw) appears in both Debian 12 and 13. Normally I choice GNome
This weekend in the same YouTube channel the owner is going to share a video about KDE (it seems with Fedora 44) to show/share if it consumes a lot of RAM as GNome 50
If the new user cant deal with a simple choice like that, then they need a distro like Mint.
I would expect any user installing Debian themselves might know enough to be able to choose a DE.
I started my Linux experience with Debian. My biggest struggle was with the grub install options… not with choosing a DE …I went with the default Gnome.
