I own a DELL Latitude 5520. The certified version for that hardware is "Ubuntu 20.04 LTS", while the latest available version is "Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS". What is the risk of installing the latest version on my hardware? Does anyone has experience or a suggestion if it is OK to use latest version instead of the certified version?
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Most likely a newer version will work.
Test the live version before installing it to find out if everything works.
As mentioned in user535733`s comment, the term "certified" can refer to Ubuntu Certified, a program by Canonical.
A search for "5520" returns two results named "Latitude 5520" with different hardware components. The model specific information states:
Pre-installed in some regions with a custom Ubuntu image that takes advantage of the system’s hardware features and may include additional software. Standard images of Ubuntu may not work well, or at all.
(I emphasized the may / may not.)
I checked a few devices from the different manufacturers. All have the same statement, so it is not clear in which cases the Ubuntu image might be different from the standard or if this applies to your device.
In some cases there is information about unsupported hardware. (A fingerprint reader not supported for a Lenovo model.)
Pay attention to hardware components like WiFi, Bluetooth, camera, touchpad, card reader, fingerprint sensor... With laptops it is more likely to face problems because some manufacturers do not provide drivers for Linux, and often you cannot replace the hardware components.
"certified" might mean that someone at Dell/Canonical verified this version to work, and nobody tried a newer version (yet).
20.04 LTS is near the end of the support period, so it is not recommended to use. If a custom image of this version supports an important hardware component that is not supported by a standard installation, then you might not have a choice.
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