Canonical Preps Security Lifeboat, Yells: Ubuntu 12.04 Hold-Outs, Get In (theregister.co.uk)

Gavin Clarke, writing for The Register: Canonical is extending the deadline for security updates for paying users of its five-year-old Ubuntu 12.04 LTS -- a first. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will become the first Long Term Support release of Canonical's Linux to get Extended Security Maintenance (ESM). There are six LTS editions. All others have been end-of-lifed -- and given no security reprieve. LTS editions of Ubuntu Linux are released every two years. Desktop support runs for three years and the server edition receives security patches and updates for a period of five years. Security updates for 12.04 were scheduled to run out on April 28, 2017 but that now won't happen for those on Canonical's Ubuntu Advantage programme. They'll now receive important security fixes for the kernel and "most essential" userspace packages on their servers running 12.04. In what's shaping up to be Canonical's Windows XP moment over at Microsoft, the Linux spinner rolled out the lifeline because customers are clinging to 12.04.

Comments

Re:Why is more recent valued over more stable?

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Even internal servers should be running versions receiving security patches to prevent easy pivots once you're inside the perimeter.
2) Vendor support only lasts so long and some companies need/require it to ensure they meet SLAs.
3) Non-homogeneous hardware deployments but homogeneous system builds.
4) Perpetually developing against old libraries will eventually cause you issues when you are forced to upgrade.

Re:Why 12.04?

[tlhIngan]

For a long time you needed 12.04 to build Android, though recent releases allow 14.04 and I think 16.04 without issue But if you have a range of Android versions, 12.04 will build a lot of them.

SystemD

[Billly Gates]

It's quite obvious.

If you must upgrade try FreeBSD. We don't change things for the sake of changing them their and it is a very stable conservative version of Unix.