As we saw on It’s Foss, 18.4 is getting support from an extra 5 years, taking it from the now 5 years to 10 years support.
So is this good news or not? I am not sure personally. I also wonder if this is a start of a trend that other Distros will follow.
So what do others think. Be interesting to see the views of our community on this and if people think it is a good or bad idea
How could it be bad?
It is a good idea. Even for desktop users, not everyone is happy when he/she has to upgrade after a few years.
It seems like a positive move to me. What downsides do you see?
According to certain posts on Ubuntu community, 10 years for desktop is nowhere mentioned. They are unsure about it and there is no official clarification. According to Ubuntu blog, the talk is more about the IoT version.
Instead of asking is this good or bad - or thinking along those terms - perhaps we should be thinking why this “may” happen. Are the major updates needed? We get updates all the time. Perhaps that is losing its appeal and the customer base has/is changing.
In the last 5 years Ihave used 14.04 and then 16.04 some 5% of my “laptop-time” and now I just follow-up the evolution of things, I’m no big expert.
The good? A 10 year support will mean for many users that they will not have to go though the struggle of going to a new version before long. Granted that going from 16.04 to 18.04 was no big deal for experienced user but many people just want to “press the button” and use their machine. For those everyday users, having to open a “black” window to type instruction copied from help gathered online is not what they want.
The bad? I tried 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish. I like the look and feel of it. Announced that it will better manage battery power. Will such interesting feature be retroactively implemented also on 18.04 updates or only for future version? If not, then users of 18.04 are stuck with what they have. My guess is that they will probably not notice or mind such thing.
Until now, Ubuntu releases a new LTS version every two years. If they continue to do so I see no impact for people who want to use newer features. If Ubuntu change that policy and does not release a 20.04 LTS version but goes to 21 or 22, then I think many “more daring” Ubuntu users will be disappointed.
Okay the upside is that it does create stability and doesn’t mean people have to make the updates to newer versions. The down side to this well, is it a hint that it might not be continued?
It will be continued. This move wouldn’t make sense if they planned to stop making the product. Additionally, maybe Ubuntu lost some of its fame and flair but nevertheless it is still one of the most used GNU/Linux OSes to date.
There are rumours from some who know that will not be or at least will not have the same parent that it now has, CANONICAL, because they have more product that have better take up than it does. History teaches us that these rumours often have foundation in fact.
Microsoft may be on to something. They own Canonical. They will kill it, the last remaining competitor for desktop operating system by freezing it to death while singing the praises of the Windows 10 perpetual upgrade process. Just my $0.02 worth. 