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This will be enforced starting May 1, 2021.

This is a notice regarding releases of Ubuntu that will be reaching, or have reached, the end of their standard support period. These releases are no longer on topic effective the above enforcement date.

The following version of Ubuntu and its derivatives officially reach End of Standard Support on April 30, 2021:

  • Xenial Xerus (16.04)

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

This information can be confirmed via the 16.04 announcement message regarding when 16.04 enters ESM. (this was sent out on March 12, 2021 as is typical ahead of a release leaving standard support).

Per discussions related to scope and on-topic posts effective April 12, 2021, End of Standard Support and End of Life are treated the same way with posts becoming 'Offtopic' at that point.

There is an Extended Security Maintenance program as part of the Ubuntu Advantage system. This does NOT give ongoing support for bugs and issues with 16.04 and is only designed to provide ongoing security updates for legacy systems you cannot yet migrate to newer software versions. This is a Canonical commercial service, and though there is a 'free' version of ESM it does not make a release 'on topic' here on Ask Ubuntu.

If you have a concern with this policy, raise it as a separate Meta issue. DO NOT post to this thread regarding your concerns with how we handle end of standard support and end of life posts.

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  • Are questions about the activation of ESM also off topic on Ask Ubuntu? Or are we going to allow those people forced to continue the use of 16.04 to get information on keeping their systems as safe as Canonical intends? It does not do anyone any good to deny users the information needed to keep their systems safe.
    – C.S.Cameron
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 4:45
  • 1
    Sorry, I got side tracked, what is the question again?
    – C.S.Cameron
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 5:05
  • @C.S.Cameron there is no question - this is my regular notice about a release heading into offtopicness. As for "How do I Enable ESM?" that's a question already on the ubuntu.com/advantage page when you 'sign up' for ESM. And since that's a Canonical paid offering (it's a commercial service even with a 'free' version) it's technically not something Ask Ubuntu provides support for, in my opinion.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 13:01
  • How does a person find out about the existence of ESM if there is no place to ask?
    – C.S.Cameron
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 13:07
  • 1
    @C.S.Cameron And that is its own discussion. Separate from this thread, and not relevant to the fact posts RE: 16.04 will become offtopic and enforced as such when the standard support period passes. Every Ubuntu release going into ESM gets an announcement email sent out which links to Ubuntu Advantage posts, etc. That's how they know to get to ESM. Or, they can find ESM info on the wiki, or just simply search 'ubuntu esm' on Google and get the Advantage page.
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 13:08
  • I have not received an ESM announcement email for 16.04 yet, when can I expect it? I don't think they will find ESM info on the wiki if they have not heard of it. we are talking about the hundreds of thousands of people that did not even vote on changing End of Life to mean end of Standard Support. How do they know ESM even exists if we are not allowed to tell them?
    – C.S.Cameron
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 14:19
  • @C.S.Cameron it went over ubuntu-announce in mid march. If you are still harping over the decision that had a month to be voted on then you are living in the past and should move on and adapt to the new rules. We can make a post about how to use ESM but Canonical has said that ESM is not community supported so...
    – Thomas Ward Mod
    Commented Apr 28, 2021 at 17:20

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