Possible Duplicate:
What’s the difference between a Long Term Support Release and a Normal Release?
I'm not very familiar with Linux, but I'd like to know why the newer version is supported only until 2014.
What does this mean as far as upgrading?
LTS means Long Term Support and the Ubuntu team releases LTS-versions every 2 years. LTS releases are defined to be enterprise focused, compatible with new hardware, and more thoroughly tested.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS
As a home user, I would say that it does not greatly matter. If you are looking for a stable and steady ground, stay with the LTS version. If there are some functions only found in the new version that you need, use the latest version.
If you are worried about the short support, Ubuntu releases standard versions twice a year, so you could update to 12.10 and when the support is ending, update to the next version.
