Ubuntu 18.10 'Cosmic Cuttlefish' reaches end of life

Tweet
Facebook
Send to

CANONICAL HAS confirmed that Ubuntu 18.10 (aka Cosmic Cuttlefish) has reached end of life (EoL).

Just as with Windows, each build of Ubuntu, one of the biggest Linux distros on the market, has a finite level of support. In this case, as it isn't an LTS release, 18.10 had nine months of support, but all good things must come to an end.

From this point, users of 18.10 will no longer receive security updates to their operating system, which could leave it open to attacks from external nasties.

In a statement, the company confirmed: "Ubuntu announced its 18.10 (Cosmic Cuttlefish) release almost 9 months ago, on October 18, 2018. As a non-LTS release, 18.10 has a nine-month support cycle and, as such, the support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 18.10 will reach end of life on Thursday, July 18th."

Users can either start again with a whole new installation, or they can choose to upgrade "in-place" using tools found in the Ubuntu UI.

The next version of Ubuntu won't appear till October, under the name Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine, but for right now, you're looking at Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo, complete with the (then) latest Linux kernel 4.18 and redesigned GNOME desktop with Yaru theme.

When you're considering your next move, it's wise to allow for the fact that, starting with 19.10, Ubuntu won't officially support 32-bit builds. There's been pushback on the move, which is why Canonical has agreed to a limited release in 32-bit for architectures where there is demand.

It's a stay of execution, however, and if you're still running a 32-bit build, you might want to make this the time you do a clean install before you don't have a choice.

Either way, you're advised to back everything up, because although updates usually leave everything unscathed, complications could see your data chewed up - look at Windows 10 Build 1803, which steamrollered through user data when being installed.

The Ubuntu website gives full instructions on how to upgrade, whether you're running a desktop or server edition. Either way, it's pretty straight forward.

The important thing here is, this isn't one of those "kick the can" moments. If you're running 18.10, you need to upgrade - you're EoL from midnight. μ