Hello. The Ubuntu "software updater" does not give option to upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04. It is set on "Notify me of a new Ubuntu version: For long-term support versions". But it simply reads, "The software on this computer is up to date."

There is no option given to upgrade to 16.04 from 14.04. Do I have to switch the options to "Notify me of a new Ubuntu version: For any new version", and then proceed to upgrade incrementally until I get to 16.04 (IE, first upgrade to 15.10, then continue on to 16.04)?

I have tried switching the "software updater" to "For any new version" and it does give the option of upgrading to 15.10. Yet, I feel the option of "For long-term support versions" should work.

Has anyone else who uses just the LTS versions noted this?

Okay, I think I found the answer. Apparently the LTS upgrade has not been enabled yet. The release notes say,

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Many thanks, that helps. I had suspected that since the 14.04 release (Ubuntu Mate for me) did not have the LTS tag that the update would likely be coming along in the not too distant future - which you have confirmed.

They usually do that. Since it's an LTS release, they wait until all the early adopters have run into most of the remaining problems (so they get fixed) before telling everybody else it's a good idea to upgrade.

People expect LTS releases to be more stable/reliable than the regular ones.

As you probably know, upgrades take forever to complete (compared to a clean install) and are almost impossible to revert unless you backup and restore root and home from scratch. This all causes considerable additional down time, etc. to complete which many LTS users would not appreciate.

Yeah, makes sense. I have no urgent rush to upgrade anyway. And the idea of upgrading twice (first to 15.10 and then again to 16.04) has no appeal to me. So, I'll wait for 16.04.1 when it will be possible to do it in one shot (presumably in 3 months or so).

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I understand that the entire packaging system has been updated to "snap". It may be wise to reinstall instead of upgrade, as so much has changed.
I will be doing this on some simply configured machines.

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You should think VERY seriously about doing a clean install of 16.04. The 14.04 to 16.04 update is a nightmare at the moment. It hosed my machine to the point where I wasn't able to even do a restore. I didn't have a current "off site" backup either for all the good it would have done me It asked for my password at boot but 16.04 never accepted it. 16.04 is, far and away, a MUCH better OS than the 14.04 LTS edition is IMHO. Well worth, and deserving of, the time and effort of a clean install.

Thanks for the information. I'll make sure to do a back up first. I'm putting off the upgrade until the software updater gives me the go ahead, which, as I noted from the release notes earlier, is expected to be in a few months.