How to find out which version / release of Ubuntu you have

Have you ever asked yourself, “How do I find out exactly which version, or release, of Ubunut I have?” There are a few ways of doing this.

The easiest, and most basic, is to open the System Monitor.You do this by going to System > Administration > System Monitor. You then click on the System tab. There you’ll see which version of Ubuntu you’re using, along with your linux kernel, and which version of gnome you have. However, this information can be incomplete. For example, if I do this, I’m told that I have Ubuntu 8.04. Well, I do, but there’s more to it than that.

See, Ubuntu has what’s called point releases for the long term support versions of Ubuntu, which 8.04 is. Check their website here, for an explanation. So, knowing that I have Ubuntu 8.04 does not tell me which point release I have. What can I do if I want that information?? Well, that’s pretty easy too.

I have to open up a terminal. To do that I go into the Accessories menu, and choose Terminal. Then I enter this…

cat /etc/issue.net

And when I do that, I’m told that I have Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS. This let’s me know that I am using the third point release. This is what I wanted to find out.

Any other ways of doing this that you prefer???