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What happens after 5 years LTS period expires? - I have not used it for that long, but, I am concerned as to what do I need to do when this period ends?

Ken Sandoval
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  • You have plenty of time, because there is no LTS release currently nearing end-of-life. 10.04 expired in April last year, and 12.04 doesn't expire until April 2017. – Mike Scott Jan 30 '16 at 17:22
  • Nothing... Your systems will continue to run along just fine, but without updates, which after 5 years is probably not a major concern. – acejavelin Jan 30 '16 at 18:14
  • Using an old Linux ssytem would be fine (I still run a RH 6.2 system), but your browser will be unupdatable and "decasy". (Because they keep moving to support only the newer systems!) This is a sad situation, since (1) updating is often troublesome or worse, and (2) we need a browser. Is there a browser that we can keep-updating on older systems? I think it would be better to have "rolling releases" that don't cause trouble as we go along. – user38666 Nov 28 '17 at 20:13

3 Answers3

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They say a picture is worth a thousand words...

It's not that bad, but if you get all the way to the end of an LTS, perhaps that an indication you've been ignoring the state of a machine for a little too long. By the time an LTS expires, two more have been released. You should be testing on those well ahead of the last one expiring.

The fire and brimstone is essentially what happens with any Linux distribution (hell, even just software) when its support runs out:

  • No more security updates
  • No more any other sorts of updates
  • The software repositories turn off time time after EOL (not the same day, usually a few months)
  • Due to the above, if you leave it too long you could be hacked and then my leading image might not be that inaccurate. Especially if your Ubuntu install is controlling a nuclear power plant, iron smelting operations, evil doomsday machine, etc.

So essentially, just upgrade within that five years. Ubuntu is free but if you're paying somebody to maintain your server, you might have to factor in costings for them doing the work.

This is exactly the same for Ubuntu Desktop and Server. They're the same packages. The difference in support timelines stopped after 2010.

And just to point out that LTS support is from its release, not from when you start using it. One of your sentences made it sound like you might have been counting it the wrong way.

Oli
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  • Fire and brimstone is too exaggerated. The good thing is that you get Stability :). That's not that bad for a DMZ machine which you use for some sort of calculations or whatever else not requiring neither network nor additional software packages. I have worked in a company which uses latest EOL of Fedora to develop its software — exactly because of guaranteed stability (i.e. equality between different installations). The package repos were just cloned to a local server while they were still available. – Ruslan Jan 30 '16 at 17:55
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    I've dealt with servers that have been ignored and then hacked. Volcanoes are easy work by comparison. – Oli Jan 30 '16 at 18:05
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When the support period expires, you will not get any security updates.

You will not be able to install any new software from repositories.

You can always upgrade your system to a newer release, or install a new supported system if the upgrade is not available.

Pilot6
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  • Can you upgrade your system if the farthest possible upgrade target release is also unsupported? E.g. can you upgrade 8.04 today? – Ruslan Jan 30 '16 at 17:26
  • @Ruslan No, you can't. – Pilot6 Jan 30 '16 at 17:27
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    They your "You can always upgrade" should be amended. – Ruslan Jan 30 '16 at 17:28
  • @Ruslan Updated. – Pilot6 Jan 30 '16 at 17:31
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    Is it really impossible to do 8.04→10.04? I would have thought there's some sort of incantation involving the old-releases repository server one could chant to get you through to 12.04. Let's be honest though, if you're coming from 8.04, it's going to be faster to just install 14.04. – Oli Jan 30 '16 at 17:35
  • Well, it may be possible, but it makes no sense and is not supported. 8.04->10.04->12.04 will most likely get you in some kind of a trouble and it is not worth the effort. – Pilot6 Jan 30 '16 at 17:38
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What happens is the release's End of Life. Security updates, patches and basically all the software from official repositories will be "blocked" (you won't be able to install from the Software Center or with apt-get from official repositories, for example). There is an "old releases" repository that you can use to get packages, but it's recommended to upgrade to an "alive" release.

The same happens with regular releases after the 9-month lifespan expires.

Eduardo Cola
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  • What should I do if I don't want to leave 14.04 for instance? do I need to pay something? and What About Servers? Do they also Expire? – Ken Sandoval Jan 30 '16 at 17:37
  • You do not need to pay anything. You can use 14.04 till end of April 2019. Then it is highly recommended to upgrade. – Pilot6 Jan 30 '16 at 17:38
  • If I'm not crazy, servers have a longer lifespan (at least the regular releases). You can continue using 14.04 using the old releases repository (search for it). You don't have to pay anything, but it's not recommended to stay in an old release. – Eduardo Cola Jan 30 '16 at 17:40
  • Well, in 5 years from now, I assume everybody will need to upgrade anyway. Let's imagine a crazy example here: Let's that I have used 14.04 for 5 years now, my period expires. If I start upgrading today, but I still want to use 14.04, could I do that? and how would I upgrade? – Ken Sandoval Jan 30 '16 at 17:47
  • Even though you can upgrade via software-updater, it's always good to make a fresh install (even more after 5 years of usage). If you really want to keep using 14.04, you can dual boot. Or use it through a DVD/USB. You can download many old releases from the Ubuntu website (they keep old versions there). – Eduardo Cola Jan 30 '16 at 22:41