I've been using 12.04 since it came out, never changed due to stability, but I do fear that I am missing a lot of stuff and new software in the newest versions. My idea was to upgrade to 14.04 when it pops out, from lts to lts, but I feel that I can't wait. Is there any issue from upgrading from 12.04 to 12.10, 13.04 and then 13.10? I remember that when upgrading windows vista to seven, instead of doing a clean install of windows seven, would make the windows heavier on resources, and quite slow in general.
So, what are the risks of upgrading to the latest non lts release instead of doing a clean install? are there performance issues? loss of personal data?