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As you know , Ubuntu 17.04 has come to end of life. I'm hesitating to upgrade to 17.10. Is it worth it ? I can not afford re installing the Os nor the loss of very sensitive data. Will be any problem with my current 17.04 dektops programs? Thank you.

pLaTnOrm
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    Your system is NOT secure. 17.04 has not been patched for Meltdown, Spectre & any patches after 13-Jan-2018 which is not a problem if your machine is not connected to the web, but to protect your data if connected to the web upgrading will provide better security. The decision is yours, but if that data is important to you - backup! If the data is sensitive and machine is connected to the web - stay updated & backup. If you don't like upgrading - use LTS versions.... however if you're not connected to the web, 17.04 is all good – guiverc Jan 18 '18 at 22:19
  • Will the upgrade include some sort of problems to my dektop apps,? – pLaTnOrm Jan 18 '18 at 22:24
  • The huge change with 17.10 was the addition of GNOME as the default desktop (in place of Unity 7). Yes Unity is still there, but its being replaced so most changes will be UI (user interface, how you interact with your machine). Sorry I didn't use 17.04 so I can't speak to changes, but I can't recall reading much. I'd repeat BACKUP anyway. – guiverc Jan 18 '18 at 22:28
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    Possible duplicate of Ubuntu release not supported anymore – karel Jan 19 '18 at 02:04
  • Thoughts on duplicate candidate. The proposed duplicate is closed as a duplicate of another. Both duplicates describe HOW TO upgrade. I think this question is the opposite: HOW NOT TO upgrade. This question alludes to problems in 17.10 which are unique. – WinEunuuchs2Unix Jan 19 '18 at 12:47

2 Answers2

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If you are not connected to the web; 17.04 is good.

Ubuntu 17.04 has not been patched for Meltdown, Spectre & any patches after 13-Jan-2018 which is not a problem if your machine is not connected to the web, but to protect your data if connected to the web upgrading will provide better security.

The decision is yours, but

  • If that data is important to you - backup!
  • If the data is sensitive and machine is connected to the web - stay updated & backup.
  • If you don't like upgrading - use LTS versions....

however if you're not connected to the web, 17.04 is all good

guiverc
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I agree with guiverc good advice about LTS versions. I went from 14.04 to 16.04 and have 18.04 on my to-do list next year.

There is another option to consider if you are on 17.04 and are reluctant to upgrade to 17.10.

  • You can still get protection from Meltdown security hole by manually installing Kernel version 14.14.13 today.
  • You can get protection from Spectre security hole by manually installing Kernel version 14.14.14 in a day or two when Ubuntu Kernel Team releases it.
  • Linux Kernel Team released 14.14.14 yesterday and Ubuntu Team is usually a day or two behind.

You can learn more from: How to update kernel to the latest mainline version without any Distro-upgrade?

WinEunuuchs2Unix
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