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It's widely known that regular Ubuntu LTS releases receive 5+ years of support while Flavors have a shorter, 3 year, support period.

However, I have now read that while the Flavor-specific programs only receive 3 years of support, the core software shared with the regular Ubuntu release will still receive support as long as the vanilla release does (5 years). Is this true?

Would it be safe to use, for example, a Kubuntu 18.04 system until 2023?

What happens if I install a minimal system from the official 18.04 Mini-ISO and just select KDE Plasma as the DE, will that still receive 5 years of updates?

Overall, I'm very confused about these proclaimed update periods.

Prototype700
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  • You need to check the release notes for each release; eg. Ubuntu Studio 18.04 was NOT a LTS release; though you can add the PPA to get 3 years of extended support (making it the equivalent of a LTS flavor). It's all covered in the release notes for the specific release you want to look at, eg. for 18.04 jump to the Support lifespan and you'll see confirmation in summary form of what I'm saying - https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes/18.04 – guiverc Jun 24 '19 at 12:33

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You need to check the release notes for each release.

For example Ubuntu Studio 18.04 was NOT a long-term-support (LTS) release, though you can add a PPA to get 3 years of extended support (making it the equivalent of a LTS flavor).

It's all covered in the release notes for the specific release you want to download and install, eg. for 18.04 jump to the Support lifespan and you'll see confirmation in summary form of what I'm saying https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes/18.04

Support lifespan

The 'main' archive of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will be supported for 5 years until April 2023. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will be supported for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Server, and Ubuntu Core. Ubuntu Studio 18.04 will be supported for 9 months. All other flavors will be supported for 3 years.

If you want a flavor, or even the main Ubuntu release - it's best to check the release notes for that release which cover it in detail for that release.

They'll also talk about packages in the installed system, if you add packages to your system (eg. Ubuntu includes only 'main' by default that have 5 years for LTS release) and add another repository (eg. 'universe') you need to check the length-of-support for those added packages ('universe' packages can have 9 months - 3 years as community supported)

guiverc
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