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Its that time again, when Canonical announce that support for one of its standard Ubuntu builds has come to an end. But what does this
mean to the end user?
As of February 4th 2016, Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubuntu-15-04-vivid-vervet-worth-wait-upgrade/) will
receive no future security notices, critical fixes, updated packages from the main archives, and instead will remain as it is, archived for
posterity.
If any of this seems familiar to you, perhaps youre a former Windows XP user. Microsoft has a long history of closing support for particular
operating systems when they reach end of life, and Windows XP was famously given a reprieve to allow users time to move onto Windows 7
(and later to Windows 8).
But hold on. Windows XP was around for almost 10 years before Microsoft declared its time was up (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5reasons-love-windows-xp-sacrifice/). Vivid Vervet was only released in April 2015, just nine months earlier. So what is going on?
Let's go
But behind the scenes, while one group of coders is issuing fixes for system problems that you may not be aware of yet, another is baking
these changes into a new, future version of Ubuntu. This is why the upgrade is necessary, in order for the operating system to evolve and
focus be placed on maintaining the newer release.
lsb_releasea
cat/etc/issue
or
cat/etc/issue.net
cat/etc/debian_version
cat/proc/version
Now you know which version of Ubuntu you have installed on your computer, you can make an informed decision about what to do next.
Using an LTS version? As long as it is within the five-year lifespan of such a release, you should be safe to carry on with it. But keep an eye
on notices from Canonical (perhaps follow @Canonical (https://twitter.com/Canonical) on Twitter) as they will give you an idea of what is
going on.
CanonicalLtd
@Canonical
Follow
Ubuntu15.10ishere!Seewhat'snewfordesktopanddevices
ubunt.eu/15.10
1:30AM23Oct2015
99
80
However, if your version is not LTS, then you will need to prepare yourself for an upgrade. This might be a simple process, or it may need
some system preparation first.
sudodoreleaseupgrade
Once the upgrade is complete, you should find that everything is more or less as it was, but Ubuntu might look a little different, or offer a few
new features. This isnt always the case, however as with Windows and Mac OS X, Linux distros dont install perfectly every time. Perhaps
a driver was missing, or there was an error with the upgrade.
In this situation, you would need to take matters into your own hands, and install the upgrade from scratch, downloading it from the Ubuntu
website (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop) using a different PC and installing manually, perhaps from a USB flash device or DVD.
Ubuntu OS upgrades are as necessary as those for Windows and OS X. Dont think that just because you moved to an open source
operating system (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-ways-linux-welcoming-windows-newcomers/) that youre not subject to the whims and
inconveniences of software developers as long as youre using a computer, you need it to be safe, secure and stable. Thats what the
developers are for; thats why we have upgrades.
Have you successfully upgraded from one Ubuntu version to another on a regular basis? Or do you prefer the LTS releases?
Tell us in the comments.
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