Checking your Ubuntu Version

There are 4 different ways to check which version of Ubuntu one is running. Two of them are command-line based and the other is using tools.

In Unity

Unity is the default desktop environment for Ubuntu since 12.04 (Precise Pangolin). The steps to retrieve the version information is as follows:

1. Click on the ‘projection’ on the menu bar (upper-right portion of the screen). This is to the right of the clock. In my installation, this cog is more of an empty square after the clock.
2. Select the option: About This Computer. This will open a new windows & displays as below:

Using Terminal

Open a terminal (Keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+T) and do any of the following.

lsb_realease

Enter the command ‘lsb_release -a‘

read lsb-release file

Read through the static file ‘lsb-release‘ under etc directory.

Using Ubuntu Tweak

Install Tweak Ubuntu and opening them gives you this:

All of these suggest the installed version on my computer is 13.04 (aka raring). These are, currently, the different methods to check the versions of ubuntu that has been installed.