How to check your Ubuntu Version

Ubuntu is a Linux-based operating system with a desktop environment, which is currently Unity. It's open-source software that's developed by a user community known as the Ubuntu project. Like other software, each version of Ubuntu has an identifier that uniquely identifies that version to its users. The version number provides users with important information about their operating system, including its date of release, its capabilities and the duration of its official support. A simple command provides users with the version of Ubuntu that they're using.

DIFFICULTY	Basic - 1 | Medium - 2 | Advanced - 3
TIME REQUIRED	5 min
RELATED PRODUCTS	Linux-based VPS or dedicated servers

Here is a quick tutorial on how to check your Ubuntu version.

Open a terminal window and enter the following from the command line to obtain version information on Ubuntu:

The -a option provides all of the information available to lsb_release. (Triva fact: "lsb" stands for "Linux Standard Base".)

The distributor ID shows that the operating system is Ubuntu. The complete description for this example is "Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS". The version number is 14.04.1, meaning that it was the first version that was released in October, 2014. The "LTS" designator indicates that this version is eligible for long-term support, so it will be officially supported for the next five years. The code name for this version of Ubuntu is "trusty," which is short for the official code name Trusty Tahr.