Q: Will my workstation automatically upgrade to a new release of Ubuntu?

Answer

It's important to differentiate "upgrading" from "updating". With the transition to Debathena, "updating" refers to the process of receiving periodic security updates and bugfixes. "upgrading" refers to the process of taking a new release of the operating system.

Only machines using the debathena-cluster metapackage will receive automatic updates and automatic upgrades to the newest supported release of Ubuntu. The upgrade process completely wipes the machine's hard drive. As a reminder, debathena-cluster workstation should not have any local data storage or custom configurations.

Note: Not all Ubuntu releases are automatically supported by the debathena-cluster metapackage. At the time of writing, only Jaunty (9.04) and Lucid (10.04) are supported.

If you use a different metapackage (e.g. debathena-workstation, debathena-standard), you should follow the normal Ubuntu upgrade procedure to upgrade to the newest release of Ubuntu. This process is documented at http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/upgrade.