Canonical tells users that support for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) will end in April 2025. It is time to move away from this OS while it is safe and free to do so.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) arrived in April 2020. Thus, the standard support cycle will have lasted five years, as per usual. With an LTS version every two years, users can opt for various upgrade cycles throughout the lifetime of a long-term Ubuntu distro. Those committed to receiving extra-long support have an additional option. Ubuntu Pro offers access to Expanded Security Maintenance, which, in the case of 20.04 LTS, provides support until April 2030. A Legacy Support add-on extends this to April 2032.
Crucial to have a plan
Canonical tells users it is “crucial” to have one’s next steps figured out. “Running Ubuntu 20.04 without ESM would mean you would no longer receive security updates after April 2025. Unpatched CVEs could expose your systems to security breaches.”
The most logical upgrade right now is Ubuntu 24.04 LTS “Noble Numbat”. Support for IBM’s latest hardware architecture as well as .NET 8 and improvements to security features stand out the most. Due to the discovery of the backdoor in compression tool xz, this version arrived a little later than intended: April 25 instead of April 11.
Read more: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ‘Noble Numbat’ is now available
Dated OS
As Canonical points out, running outdated operating systems is strongly discouraged. Nevertheless, this occurs regularly. Every time a prominent OS loses support, the question arises of where obsolete systems are still running. The healthcare industry is one such example . It is faced with the issue of medical equipment being regularly in use for a much more prolonged period than support for their operating systems (often just Windows or a Linux distribution) allows. Four years ago, 83 percent of these devices were found to be running outdated OSes. There’s no reason to believe the situation is any better at the moment.
Ubuntu, based on Debian, is used for all kinds of purposes. IoT devices are also a prominent use case, particularly LTS releases. Canonical’s call is therefore by no means just aimed at organizations with PCs and servers running on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS.
Also read: When is a critical vulnerability actually dangerous?