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This post is intended as a portal for users of unsupported releases to useful information.

What is an "end of life" Ubuntu version?

All Ubuntu versions have a life span. Once their time is up they are no longer supported by Canonical or eligible for support on Ask Ubuntu.

There are two types of Ubuntu releases, a short term support release every six months and a long term support (LTS) release every two years.

A short term support release is supported for nine months from the day it was released and a long term support release is supported for five years. At the end of the support period the release is refereed to as end of life (EoL) and no longer supported, no updates, no security patches and no support here.

Please see What's the difference between a Long Term Support Release and a Normal Release? for more information on the different release types.

As of now, what are the supported versions of Ubuntu?

14.04 LTS

14.04 was released in April 2014 and is supported until April 2019 - for 5 years, because it is a Long Term Support release.

16.04 LTS

16.04 was released in April 2016 and is supported until April 2021 - for 5 years, because it is a Long Term Support release.

17.04

17.04 was released in April 2017 and is supported until January 2018 - for 9 months.

Unsupported releases since 2010, including EoL date:

  • 10.04 LTS - 9th May 2013 (30th April 2015 for servers)
  • 10.10 - 10th April 2012
  • 11.04 - 28th October 2012
  • 11.10 - 9th May 2013
  • 12.10 - 16th May 2014
  • 13.04 - 27th January 2014
  • 13.10 - 17th July 2014
  • 14.10 - 23rd July 2015
  • 15.04 - 4th February 2016
  • 15.10 - 28th July 2016
  • 16.10 - 20th July 2017

What should you do if you are using an end of life release?

If you are using an unsupported release, you should upgrade to or install a supported one, as your system is likely to become unstable and insecure. Here are some questions that can help you to upgrade to a supported version:

How do I upgrade to a newer version of Ubuntu?

Can I skip over releases when upgrading?

Where can I find official documentation on this?

The Ubuntu wiki

ubuntu.com

The Ubuntu docs

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  • 3
    wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
    – Seth Mod
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 0:22
  • If this were on main, I'd VTC it as a dupe of askubuntu.com/questions/382579/…
    – muru
    Commented Jan 29, 2016 at 0:29
  • I am all for adding these kind of posts to link users to when they are off topic but this lacks any kind of detail on what eol is and why it happens, for new users. I would like to support this but it needs to contain a lot more information (potentially more than the Ubuntu wiki) to make it worth linking users to this rather than the official docs.
    – Mark Kirby
    Commented Jan 30, 2016 at 13:17
  • @markkirby please edit it if you want - I just can't make it CW
    – Tim
    Commented Jan 30, 2016 at 13:22

1 Answer 1

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The Ubuntu release schedule seems to always have up to date information regarding currently supported releases and end-of life releases (going back to Ubuntu 4.10 As of this writing.)

You may also find information on the next scheduled upcoming release although for the most current, up to date info on that you'll likely want to subscribe to the ubuntu-announce mailing list.

End of life versions are versions of Ubuntu that receive no further maintenance updates, including critical security upgrades. for this reason it's always recommended to use a supported version of Ubuntu.

You can get details regarding the support status of yoru version of Ubuntu with the command ubuntu-support-status which provides detailed output similar to thison my 14.04.5 system:

Support status summary of 'zippy-64bit':

You have 2211 packages (81.1%) supported until May 2019 (5y)
You have 173 packages (6.3%) supported until September 2022 (5y)

You have 7 packages (0.3%) that can not/no-longer be downloaded
You have 334 packages (12.3%) that are unsupported


Run with --show-unsupported, --show-supported or --show-all to see more details

To drill down into the details, utilize the switches on the last line of output.

This answer should be future proof to the best of my ability. If it somehow becomes invalid, drop me a comment and if I'm still alive, I'll try to fix it.

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