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This will be enforced starting on April 28, 2017.

This is a notice regarding releases of Ubuntu that have reached End of Life.

The following versions of Ubuntu and derivatives are officially end of life as of April 28, 2017:

  • Precise Pangolin (12.04)

New questions specific to the above posted after the aforementioned date may need to be considered off-topic. Old questions (posted before the end of life date) that are still being answered regarding these releases should have a comment included on them about upgrading to a supported release to continue to get support for their versions of Ubuntu.

This information can be confirmed via the 12.04 End of Life Announcement email message stating the official End Of Life date, establishing April 28th, 2017 as the EOL date for Precise.

Please upgrade to a supported release to continue to receive support via Ask Ubuntu and Ubuntu Security updates.

It should be noted that there is a Precise Pangolin Extended Security Maintenance program that is part of the Ubuntu Advantage system. That is, you can get continued Precise support from Canonical, in so much as you are getting extended time for Security updates.

While this is a service made available by Canonical, provided you purchase an Ubuntu Advantage subscription, it does not make Precise Pangolin (12.04) questions after the EOL date on topic here on Ask Ubuntu.

Exceptions to this include:

  • ESM queries like "What is the Extended Security Maintenance" or "How do I get the Extended Security Maintenance", although we probably will have canonical questions for these at some point

  • Questions about upgrading from 12.04 to a supported release.

All other questions regarding Precise are probably off-topic after the aforementioned date.

This Meta thread is NOT a discussion of how we handle EOL releases. This is simply a notification to all about an upcoming "End of Life" date for a current release of Ubuntu (as of this posting being made). Please refrain from asking in comments about how we handle EOL questions, or commenting on such handling policies.

Relevant related posts:

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  • 7
    @guntbert It should be made known that ESM is only part of Ubuntu Advantage for Precise and you have to purchase a support contract for that. That comes with a professional support package that includes actual support. For the purposes of Community support, I'm not sure we should make a note about ESM anywhere. (I'm going to consult with the other moderators first)
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Mar 15, 2017 at 21:15
  • 11
    I'd rather not make them off topic, askubuntu != Canonical.
    – Ciro Santilli OurBigBook.com
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 14:19
  • 3
    @CiroSantilli烏坎事件2016六四事件法轮功 We can't help with ESM - that's a purely Canonical provided service with little details and assistance from the community - the best we can do, as discussions with other moderators seem to have shown, is point people to Canonical support because ESM is part of Ubuntu Advantage, which comes with a support contract from Canonical itself...
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 16:59
  • 3
    @CiroSantilli烏坎事件2016六四事件法轮功 As for the End of Life discussion itself refer to the links in the post - that's where the EOL discussions themselves take place about supporting EOL releases
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Mar 25, 2017 at 17:43
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    I don't know why but this post makes me feel kinda sad 😢
    – user525989
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 17:09
  • 7
    I don't know why but this post makes me feel kinda old =)
    – Earthliŋ
    Commented Mar 30, 2017 at 17:26
  • 2
    @ThomasWard Doesn't the link (Should we allow questions that are about releases which are considered End of Life?) you provide indicat that one shouldn't close as off-topic questions pertaining to EOL versions of Ubuntu? (According to the most upvoted answer)
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 14:18
  • 2
    @FranckDernoncourt Sorta. Pre-existing 12.04 questions don't get closed. But after the EOL date, new 12.04 questions that are 12.04 specific (with a few exceptions as detailed in the linked questions) are offtopic.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 16:51
  • 2
    @ThomasWard The most upvoted answer says that both pre-existing and new questions shouldn't be closed as off-topic.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 17:23
  • 2
    @FranckDernoncourt That's actually not true well partially - UNTIL the EOL date nothing 12.04 gets marked as offtopic. AFTER the EOL date, there's only a handful of "new" 12.04 questions permitted - such as issues with upgrading to 14.04 or "How do I upgrade" kind of questions. This is as it always has been. (It may be more prudent to open your own Meta question to ask how we're going to handle this than handle it in comments here)
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 18:04
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    @ThomasWard The most upvoted answer says "If someone's using an old OS and there are people out there that want to answer their questions, then why not?". Unless I missed something, it clearly means that that both pre-existing and new questions shouldn't be closed as off-topic. Did I misunderstand something?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 18:40
  • 2
    @ThomasWard But it's a comment on your post, which says "New questions specific to the above posted after the aforementioned date may need to be considered off-topic.". A separate Meta post would be a duplicate of Should we allow questions that are about releases which are considered End of Life?
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 18:43
  • 2
    @ThomasWard From my understanding, the discussion happened on Should we allow questions that are about releases which are considered End of Life? and the most upvoted answer says that both pre-existing and new questions shouldn't be closed as off-topic. I therefore don't think we need more discussion, but I think your post needs to be amended to reflect the community choice.
    – Franck Dernoncourt
    Commented Apr 13, 2017 at 18:58
  • 3
    @FranckDernoncourt This is dealt with in the help section under "questions that you should avoid", so I don't really think it matters what the result of a Meta discussion was.
    – Jon Bentley
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 17:37
  • 3
    @FranckDernoncourt Perhaps (and I upvoted your comments because ThomasWard didn't seem to be addressing your point). But the help section contains site rules. Community opinion should be dealt with on the post you mentioned, and used as a means to influence the changing of said rules. In the meantime a notice such as this one should be based on the rules currently in force. It would be confusing to enter into a summary or discussion of current community opinion, when that opinion is something different to the rules.
    – Jon Bentley
    Commented May 9, 2017 at 22:25

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