back to article Ubuntu flings 14.04 LTS users a security lifeline, chats some more about Hyper-V

Ubuntu-slinger Canonical has assured us that 14.04 LTS users need not fear the impending end of life of the OS next year, and confirmed it will keep security fixes flowing a little while longer. Long Term Support gets just a little bit longer Ubuntu’s “Long Term Support” (LTS) releases of its Debian-based OS have seen five …

  1. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    Kind old Microsoft helped out again with the metadata necessary to get Ubuntu into the Hyper-V gallery.

    Microsoft? Kind?

    Something's wrong here.

    1. quxinot

      First step: Embrace.

      1. Jon 37

        Well, getting Ubuntu running on a MS hypervisor is really Extend...

        1. katrinab Silver badge

          I tried it out at the weekend, wanted to try out something that wasn’t in Free BSD Ports Collection, so tried it out on a Hyper-V machine. Ubuntu, I tried first, it didn’t work, then I tried Debian, which did. Though the problem with Ubuntu was related to its Python packages, not anything to do with Hyper-V integration. Both worked fine out of the box in that respect.

          But seriously, as someone who is used to BSD init, why is systemd a thing? I just don’t get it at all.

      2. oiseau
        Big Brother

        Microsoft? Kind?

        Something's wrong here.

        ---

        First step: Embrace.

        The writing has been on the wall for the longest time now.

        Flee from systemd, one day it will be too late.

        Have a good week-end.

  2. Peter Gathercole Silver badge

    Why stick to 14.04?

    One should point out that 14.04 is the last LTS release that does not have systemd as the default init (it is still there, but upstart is running as process 1).

    This may make some shops stay with 14.04 for a bit longer.

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Why stick to 14.04?

      Thanks for pointing that out. Otherwise sticking with 14.04 looks really odd since, unlike the alleged parallel with Windows, it doesn't actually cost you anything to upgrade (either the OS or most of the packages you might be interested in).

      1. DCFusor

        Re: Why stick to 14.04?

        While systemd has indeed made quite the mess of anything around here non-standard, when the workaround to some "WONT_FIX" bug breaks in turn in systemd rev n+1, saying an upgrade is no cost really misses things like -

        it takes a long time to rebuild a complex machine, get all the apps again, set up all the stuff in /etc and so on if the upgrade doesn't quite work (which I've already had happen here).

        I'm pretty quick and know a few tricks for getting lists of installed packages for the non custom stuff - some of which still work in the new rev - and editing that huge file to remove the old distro-specific stuff once I spend time learning what that even is, and usually remembering the custom stuff I have (for example, in-LAN discovery checks, monitoring, failover) and getting that all in too. Lots of times that only takes a day or so per machine with the testing one needs to do...

        That's not even close to zero cost. That's some real heartburn.

  3. cdrcat

    I'm still running 14.04 on my laptop

    I am about to buy a new laptop, install 18.04, and hopefully I can forget about it for another 4 years.

    In April 2010, I bought a high spec desktop, installed 10.04, and left the OS alone (use VMs for all work). I bought a fast laptop in April 2014 to replace that, installed 14.04, and I have left the OS alone - still running great.

    I might be interested in delaying the next laptop purchase from 2018 to April 2020 (my current laptop is still powerful), but minimum charge for extended support is huge and Canonical don't want the amount the security upgrades would be worth to me (say USD75).

    Over the 8 years I have had complete hell of updates and failures on some other Windows machines I unfortunately took responsibility for...

    1. Fatman

      Re: I'm still running 14.04 on my laptop

      <quote>Over the 8 years I have had complete hell of updates and failures on some other Windows machines I unfortunately took responsibility for...</quote>

      You should never take responsibility for any Windows machines, because you do not """own""" the operating system. Microsoft does. You only get to use it as Microsoft sees fit.

      And Microsoft does not give a shit if you encounter 'problems'.

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