Check the OS Version in Linux

When we want to install the Software on our system, first we must know whether our current Operating System is supporting this version of the software or not. In Windows, we can easily check it as Windows is based on a GUI-based Operating System.

But we prefer to use the Command line instead of the GUI in an Operating System like Linus/Unix.

5 Simple Ways to Check the Linux OS Version:

Here are some easy ways to see which Linux version your computer is using, with simple commands or by clicking through settings.

1) Using the os-release file available in Linux’s etc directory to check the Version of Ubuntu.

We can check the Linux Operating System (OS) information by running the below command.

cat /etc/os-release 

Output:

To only view the name and version of Ubuntu or Red Hat Linux, we can filter out it by using the `grep` command.

grep '^VERSION' /etc/os-release
grep -E '^(VERSION|NAME)=' /etc/os-release

In this example, we checked our name and version of Red Hat Linux.

2) Using the `lsb_release` Command to Check the OS Version of Ubuntu.

LSB Stands for Linux Standard Base, we can check the Linux Operating System (OS) with the sing lsb_release command.

lsb_release -a

Output:

3) Using the `hostnamectl` Command to Check Version of Ubuntu.

We can use the `hostnamectl` command to check the Linux Operating System (OS) or we can say to check the version of Ubuntu.

hostnamectl

Output:

4) `uname` Command in Linux to Check the Version of Ubuntu.

To print the version of the Linux kernel we can use the `uname` command.

uname -r

5) Using GUI (Graphical User Interface) to Check the Version of Linux.

We have 3 Simple Steps to find OS version of Ubuntu in Linux.

Step 1: Click on the start menu application.

As shown below.

Step 2: Search Settings kernel on the Search bar.

Click on settings as shown below.

Step 2: click on About.

As shown below. And we can easily see the version of Ubuntu.

Conclusion

It is essential to know the operating system version when we are installing software or performing any kind of system update. Checking the OS version in Windows is straightforward due to the GUI (Graphical User Interface), whereas in Linux users have several ways to check the OS version including OS-release file, lsb_release command, hostnamectl command, or the GUI (Graphical User Interface).

One must understand the importance of knowing the CLI methods to find out the OS version as Linux is mostly used for CLI, by this users can troubleshoot issues, install new software, and keep the system updated.