I am thinking about not upgrading to 26.04 from 24.04. Worried about upgrading to a non LTS. If I skip a few upgrades like waiting until 28.04, would I be able to do the update from 24.04 LTS to 28.04 directly or would I have to upgrade every release, like 26.04, 26.10, 27.04, 27.10, and finally 28.04 etc. I like that 24.04 is stable and I have Ubuntu Pro so can I just stay on 24.04 for like 10 years and keep getting security update?
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Ubuntu supports the following upgrade
- from release to the next release
- from a LTS to the next release (in the next LTS cycle; 24.10, 25.04, 25.10 & 26.04 being the same two year LTS development cycle; LTS always the end of the cycle)
- from LTS to the next LTS (which is covered in my last point anyway)
ie. Ubuntu 24.04 LTS has an upgrade path to 24.10 (now it'll go direct to 25.04, but that will change to 25.10 when 25.04 is EOL), and that will eventually change to the next LTS which is 26.04.
The Ubuntu Release Upgrader tool will NOT know that a flavor is not-LTS, as it treats all systems by their Ubuntu base; and 26.04 is the next LTS after Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
No you will not be able to release-upgrade from 24.04 to 26.04.
(Whilst its true the upgrade process has changed over the years; ie. 14.04 didn't allow upgrade direct to 15.04 as 24.04 does to 25.04! I do not see what you're asking for becoming an supported upgrade)
Another way of achieving it can be via non-destructive re-install which I talked about on a support question here which was an old question, but I was asked to write that answer somewhere on the site & that question I felt suitable... that currently is only available for ISOs using calamares due to forced-format of / with ubuntu-desktop-installer for releases 24.04 thru 25.10, which is no longer a priority at being corrected (as it was hoped to be back in the 24.04/noble or 24.10/oracular cycles) so it won't be suitable for Ubuntu MATE unless you re-install using another flavor (3 flavors uses calamares for 24.04 & newer releases currently)
Don't forget to read the security notices if you want to rely on ESM via Ubuntu Pro; as you need to take note of the packages that are only supported via snap package format where they were supported as deb packages in standard support; this traditionally has impacted desktop users more than server installs.
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Thanks guiverc for your answer. Sorry I may have misposted. I am on 24.04 and want to upgrade to 28.04, like as if I am going from LTS to LTS but missing 26.04. If I do upgrade to 26.04 then I will have to upgrade every version after the releases are EOL? Sorry I am a bit confused
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The most a release-upgrade from Ubuntu [MATE] 24.04 LTS can go forward is to Ubuntu [MATE] 26.04[.1 LTS] (though it can be achieved now using the -d or development option).
From Ubuntu 26.04 LTS in the future, ie. a couple of years from now, you'll be able to then release-upgrade to Ubuntu 28.04 LTS.
So you can go from one LTS release to the next, but you cannot skip an LTS release; so to get from 24.04 LTS to 28.04 LTS you'll have two release-upgrades [at a minimum], just as users of 20.04 LTS had two release-upgrades to get to 24.04 (ie. they had to go to 22.04 first). Not a single jump, but a minimum of two jumps are required; but more than two can also be used (ie. interim or non-LTS releases can be used too if preferred)
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I know this doesn’t answer your question, but I have upgraded and done fresh installs. I have found a fresh install takes far less time including the time to transfer all your data. In addition, there are less quirks to figure out with a fresh install. My current laptop has gone from 18.04 to 20.04, now on 22.04. I have been hesitant to move on to 24.04 because of the mounting quirks.
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And the back should be the same either way. You never know what can go wrong on an upgrade.
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