Ubuntu 22.04 LTS running on a Surface Go.

Linux is always evolving and improving. So Canonical, Ubuntu Linux's parent company, releases point upgrades about twice a year to deliver the latest software, improvements, and security fixes. Now you can easily update your Ubuntu release or download and install Ubuntu 22.04.1.

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Unlike Windows 10, where Microsoft's new releases are major operating system upgrades in their own right, Ubuntu's biannual updates are designed to keep the look and feel of the older versions and just add improvements. And unlike Windows, where there are numerous editions for different feature sets -- Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 10 Enterprise, and more -- Ubuntu 22.04, aka Jammy Jellyfish, comes with all available features. 

If there's a program you need that Ubuntu doesn't have by default, you simply download and install it from the Ubuntu Software Store. No fuss, no muss.

As a long-term support version, Ubuntu 22.04.x has standard support for five years. In other words, you can use it until April 2027. If you like it a lot, Canonical provides essential support, such as security fixes, for 10 years. So, yes, if you want to use Ubuntu 22.04 for a decade, you'll be safe running it until April 2032.

In the meantime, this point release gives you all of Jellyfish's bug fixes, app updates, performance tweaks, and security patches since it was rolled out in April. This is much easier than downloading and installing three months' worth of updates piecemeal.

Specifically, these improvements and fixes include adding the Nvidia R515 graphics driver; Retbleed Spectre security mitigations for older Intel and AMD CPUs for Alder Lake systems; Dell XPS 13 9320 Alder Lake laptop support fixes; Intel AMX support; Intel IPU6 MIPI camera support; and RISC-V board support. 

This version should have appeared a week earlier, but it was delayed by an installer issue that would have stopped Snaps program packages, such as the default Mozilla Firefox browser, from launching. That problem has now been fixed. 

Perhaps the users who will be most excited by this new release are the good people who have been running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. While you could upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04, it was a little tricky.

Soon, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS users will be prompted to upgrade to 22.04 LTS directly from their desktop. Unlike Linux Mint, which can be difficult to upgrade to its most recent LTS version, migrating from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04 is very straightforward.

How easy is it? I did it on my production Ubuntu desktop while writing this story, and it took me about half an hour.

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