Ubuntu Long Term Support SAMIT Video

scottalanmiller

We're going to talk about how the Ubuntu LTS releases don't necessarily mean what you think they mean.

I've written some articles on this and sometimes this causes some confusion or emotional reactions. Ubuntu Linux right, the operating system has two major releases. One is their LTS release. If you're watching this when it is current, their current LTS release is 16.04 (but 18.04 is right around the corner) they have a current release, not a current LTS release, but a current release that is 17.04. Two releases later than their LTS release and, of course, LTS is meant to stand for long term support and it is common within IT to have products that are labeled LTS or that are long term support and products that are not in the Fedora and Red Hat world.

Red Hat itself is a long-term release always, that's just how Red Hat works. And Fedora is a non-LTS or a current or a short term release product on which it is based. Ubuntu works a little bit differently in that they simply release a new open to product every six months and every fourth one which is an even number year with the the o for relief suffix becomes their long-term support release product, so 12.04. So going back 10.04, 12.04, 14.04, 16.04, and in not too long, 18.04 will be their LTS releases.

These releases get a very long term support cycle with like, I don't know, the exact number is something like a decade
that they stand behind that product. So if you put that product in the production they will support you for something like a decade. There are other releases the three that come in between these so since 10.04 as the first LTS. This would be 10.10, 11.04, 11.10, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10 - and so forth. Right it's all the ones so currently there was ten 16.04 as the LTS and then there was 16.10 and currently 17.04 and in a few months we're gonna have 17.10 as our current releases (at the time of the video, 17.04 was current, 17.10 is current today as of this posting and 18.04 is due in a couple of weeks.)

These come out like I said every six months hence the numbering cycle and they get a very short support term more like two years. So if you want to stay on those you have to stay current to get any type of support now traditionally it has sounded great you want long-term support so you can stay on things for a long time and we will discuss in another episode I know I say that a lot but weneed a lot of episodes why LTS mattersand why it's a risk but that's aseparate thing and not related to a gun- in the obutu world what we need todiscuss is what they mean by LTS becausethis is really important in most caseswe assume as IT professionals that whenwe hear long-term support release thatwe are getting equal support or bettersupport and this is simply animplication that we shouldn't make butwe assume that we're getting thisamazing level of support for a reallylong time and in cases like Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. That is true in the case of who would -it is not booboo - does support you longterm and this is not a knockout of good- it is simply that they take adifferent approach to how the supportworks the book - will support you butnot for critical conditions at theoperating system level or things thatare simply nonsensical for them to tryto fix for their small user base if it'sa small user issue for those thingsUbuntu will require you to move to thecurrent release so for example and Idealt with this directly with 1004 therewas a poorly found not very common racecondition that could happen with the long-term release and made it unstableit only affected a small number of usersand canonical who makes a good two'sresponse to that issue was well we'renot going to fix it you need to move tocurrent because we'll fix it there andthat's a pretty logical thing for themto do it makes sense financially ithelps the most number of users and it'sa very few number of people that areaffecteda solution so there's no real reason tohave been staying on the LTS release youcould move to something more current fixthat and other problems get newertechnology and you're good to gothat was the bun twos way of dealingwith support for the LTS releasebasically the current releases get anythings necessary they are guaranteed toget fixed the glue to is not going toleave you hanging but there LTS releasesonly get a lesser level of support overthe long haul you do get support they'renot making that up and they will helpyou move to an on LTS release so there'sthat form of support but they don't givethe same level of support they don'tgive the level of support assumed in thename and it's purely IT professionalsmaking an assumption that is notactually even writing anywhere as theydo for their current so with Ubuntu youreally want to think carefully what itmeans to have an LTS release and why youare using it which is surprising becausein the Ubuntu worldLTS seems to be more popular with endusers than their current whereas otherproducts such as openSUSE seems to havemore interest around their rapid releaseproducts in their case tumbleweed versusleap which is their long-term support sofor some reason Ubuntu even though theyfocus less on long-term support in theirlong-term support products has anecosystem that seems to have gravitatedtowards it for some reason that I cannever seem to get good explanations onmy recommendation is unless you have avery specific reason when using Ubuntuwhich is a great product always go withtheir current releases and stay currentif you need their long-term supportrelease for example because you'reworking with an application that onlywill support that version then by allmeans you must use the LTS releasethere's nothing wrong with the LTSrelease but you should have a specificreason for sticking with it and shouldnot do so as a default decision youshould default to the current release ifyou're working with other products RedHat Enterprise Linux openSUSE leap firstof all we'd that decision may bedifferent and there may be good reasonsto stick with their long-term supportsas your default choice but in theto world I highly recommend moving totheir short-term support their currentrelease cycle updating every six monthsthey do a great job of making thispainless for you so there's no realreason to be sticking with the LTSrelease unless again you have some othertechnical need that's pushing youtowards that what's a little bitinteresting is a lot of downstreamproducts from Abu - such as linux mintrely on the LTS release and you can kindof see why because MIT doesn't want tobe reinventing the wheel every sixmonths if you look at someone likekarora who does a short-term releasewith fedora they struggle to staycurrent because their project is simplyvery small compared to their parentproduct so we can this project so we cansee with Linux Mint why they may makethat LTS decision but it also means thatlinks Mint is being held back in a lotof ways that it wouldn't necessarilyhave to be and oddly for a desktopproduct we normally want to see thingsmoving a little bit more rapidly but ingeneral was it going to lean towards thecurrent and if nothing else when youmake the decision to use LTS simply makesure that you understand how it worksthat if you hit a critical conditionyour support may be that you have tomove to current and that may be morepainful than if you did just stick withcurrent from the first place and all thedisadvantages of staying with an LTSsuch as being more out of date notgetting the latest fixes as fast it maynot be as beneficial as you expect themto be given that should anything happenyou'll have to leave the LTS rather thanthe assumption that you should havestuck with it to get those things fixedthanks for joining me I hope that thishelps to explain the u-boot tubeecosystem and why it's name is one thingand why it means different things thanwhat people assume and how this willaffect you and your decision-makingaround your deployment strategies withUbuntu Linux I remember to like andsubscribe and if you want to support usdirectly you can there'll be a link topatreon in the notes below and you candiscuss any stories you have ofdynamical support how they've requiredyou to move on to current or if you havestories of support of course they doprovide support on LTS it's just not thesame level of support so most peoplewith most problems can use LTS no problem.