
Canonical Extends Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Linux Support to 10 Years - misnome
https://www.serverwatch.com/server-news/canonical-extends-ubuntu-18.04-lts-linux-support-to-10-years.html
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krferriter
I wonder if Canonical is seeing any increase in traffic/business interest
after IBM acquired Red Hat, and if this increase in LTS lifespan was planned
prior to that or if it is an intentionally timed incentive to attract people
away from RHEL at a time when they might already be inclined to be exploring
other options.

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Apocryphon
One wonders who would be the likely acquirer-suitor. Microsoft?

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tw04
Why would MS acquire Ubuntu when they could just spin their own distro? What
does Ubuntu have to offer to justify what would likely be a massive premium
over just hiring whatever developer shortfall they may have?

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theevilsharpie
You could make the exact same argument about Red Hat.

Ubuntu's (and by extension Canonical's) value is in its brand and existing
customer relationships, neither of which Microsoft would have if they rolled
their own distro.

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tw04
You're serious right now? You think if Microsoft released Microsoft Linux
tomorrow they wouldnt have brand recognition?

I know there's a lot of MS hate around here, but that's ridiculous. Literally
everyone would know what Microsoft Linux was within a month. It would be a
headline on every tech site across the internet.

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Apocryphon
They would have brand recognition, but it might be of the negative kind.
Whereas Ubuntu is a venerable known brand.

Besides, I just suggested one potentil buyer, I want to hear who else besides
boring answers like Google.

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tw04
>They would have brand recognition, but it might be of the negative kind.

Outside of the people who are going to hate MS no matter what, I don't know
what reasonable CIO would have a negative connotation of MS Linux. They
ALREADY maintain multiple branches/distros internally for things like their
network OS; and anyone older than a millennial should know they wrote Xenix
which was one of the most successful UNIX variants ever sold...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Linux_distributions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Linux_distributions)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix)

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Yetanfou
I'd say that any CIO with a bit of savvy would think twice before betting too
heavy on a Microsoft Linux product, at least while Windows is still a thing in
the eyes of Microsoft. Should Windows really be relegated to the annals of
history this might change but until that time it'd be unwise to assume
Microsoft would allow its Linux distribution to become a potential replacement
for its Windows products, the simple reason being that Linux can be had
elsewhere.

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grifferz
I'm wondering exactly how far this promise of support will go.

It's no secret (although it still surprises some) that only software in the
"main" suite is supported by LTS, so all the useful stuff in "universe" for
example, may see no updates.

But there are a lot of large pieces of software in main that are already
problematic for support across 5 years, let alone 10.

For example what about Django, which is at version 1.11 in Ubuntu 18.04 and
uses Python 2. The Django project doesn't intend to release another version
that uses Python 2, and Python 2 goes EOL in 2020. So how is Canonical
planning to support a complex web framework out to 2028 when the framework is
EOL and the scripting language it is based on is also EOL in 2020?

Realistically I think the answer is going to be, "it can't; install it
yourself from upstream, or rely on a snap provided by upstream." But that's
what the answer always was, and a few answers like that make the promise of 10
year support for main rather hollow.

Is the promise of support just for the kernel and base OS?

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pmontra
I create a virtualenv and add to it whatever Python or pip I need. I've got
many of them and I really don't care about which language versions my Ubuntu
comes from. Same for Ruby, Node, Elixir, Erlang. And if that doesn't work for
something there is docker.

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Theodores
Operating systems are a bit like the computers used to run them. Years ago
when Ubuntu was new your computer would be out of date in two years and an
upgrade of the hardware was needed. Nowadays it is not like that and machines
older than five years are perfectly fine to use on a daily basis. So it is
good that your operating system doesn't expire with no further updates given
half way through the machine's life.

This is even more so in server-land than desktop, a functional web server that
has worked for years shouldn't need upgrading to a new virtual machine so
often. Two to three years can fly by in ways that didn't happen when hardware
had to be constantly upgraded.

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taeric
This sounds huge. I'm hoping it is a trend that is either already common and I
didn't realize it, or that catches on in the industry.

The rapid iteration of many parts of our industry is fun, at times. There is
something for stability of foundation, though.

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WalterGR
Microsoft supported Windows XP for 12 years. They didn’t even need to use the
“LTS” branding. (That may have changed now that they’ve moved to rolling
updates.)

Neither Apple nor Google do anything comparable.

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taeric
Yeah. I feel Apple and Google are a large part of the wave that destroyed this
behavior. They both took major kudos for their rapid release cycle.

I almost think people thought it was fun to constantly update, for a while. To
their credit, it used to be somewhat safe to do.

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vfulco2
I wish my updates didn't get borked recently with some grub efi/non-efi issue
:-( Amazing news otherwise

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8bitsrule
Good point. 10 years is great, IF you have an easy-to-use backup/snapshot
system in place. (Like, say, Mint does)

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nkkollaw
This will be a lot of extra work for desktop distros.

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beatgammit
How so? Downstream distros can end support whenever they want.

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nkkollaw
Ah, they don't have to keep supporting Bionic for 10 years instead of 5?

