Ubuntu 24.04 LTS To Get 12 Years of Updates

We are just months away from the long-awaited launch of the next Ubuntu long-term support release (LTS) i.e., Ubuntu 24.04 LTS "Noble Numbat".

Not to forget, Canonical shared a roadmap in early December last year that showcased what the Desktop team was working on for Ubuntu 24.04. Even the earlier Ubuntu 23.10 release could be used as a strong indicator of what to expect from the upcoming LTS release.

However, we now have some additional insights into what we could expect from the Ubuntu 24.04 release thanks to an interview done by Destination Linux at the Ubuntu Summit with a special guest.

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12 Years of Support for Ubuntu LTS Releases?

The interview guest was none other than Mark Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical. He revealed that Ubuntu 24.04 LTS will be receiving 12 years of updates, and the same commitment would be made for some older LTS releases (without specifying any versions).

Mark mentions:

I don't want to steal somebody else's thunder, but essentially 12 years is what we are going to do for 24.04, and we are gonna go back and do that for some of the older ones as well.

Mark put it as a "platinum grade enterprise commitment" that matches what Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) offers. Moreover, they are not only doing that for the core components, but for the entirety of the distribution with about 30,000 source packages.

He also added:

Obviously, some of that is Ubuntu Pro, but the simple fact is that you can now take Ubuntu 24.04, and you will be able to deploy something knowing that you literally can just do apt get update on a regular basis for the next 12 years and that stuff is gonna be secured, always going to be maintained.

It is pretty clear that for such kind of long-term support, you will have to sign up for Ubuntu Pro. And, that is not necessarily a bad thing, considering the pro subscription is free for personal use.

If you do not opt for the Ubuntu Pro, you get the standard five years of updates until 2029.

You see, earlier, we knew that Ubuntu 24.04 would receive up to 10 years of software and security updates with a subscription; until April 2034. However, that now changes with this new information.

Now, we could see Ubuntu 24.04 LTS being supported until at least April 2036, and that is quite a long support period for a Linux distribution.

If you ask me, I expect an announcement on the official Ubuntu blog for the extended support, where we get details on which older distros will be supported.

I highly suggest you watch the interview considering it includes some interesting information on AI too!

How to Get Extended Years of Support?

Well, if you are an enterprise, or someone who doesn't really like changing their Ubuntu LTS installation after the standard five-year support runs out; getting Ubuntu Pro is a superb option.

And as things stand now, you can get an Ubuntu Pro subscription for free on up to five machines if you want it for personal use cases. For enterprises, you will have to contact Canonical directly for pricing.

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💬 Does 12 years of software update support sound exciting to you? Share your thoughts in the comments below.