[SWLUG] difference between .04 and .10 of ubuntu

[Vladimir Zlatanov]

<snip>

> However, that aside.  Can anyone tell me if each release has a beta 
> version first and then when all bugs are sorted it has a 'alpha' or 
> final version.  Is my annoyance at things having stopped working after 
> an upgrade possibly attributable to this?

the order is simple:
version     / version label
year.month    dev               -- development version,v unstable
              alpha             -- early test of release
              beta              -- release candidate, bugs present
              release           -- should be stable, but watch updates

the later a label in the above list, the stability improves
the release label is usually omitted, so if you see Ubuntu referring to
9.10 or 10.4 - this means that this is a release, any of the
dev/alpha/beta denote pre-release software, with respectively increasing
quality.