Ubuntu 14.04 arrives at the terminus: from April, we will have to pay for the support
Canonical has announced that in April Ubuntu 14.04 will lose the free support and will have to be updated to a new version; alternatively, you will need to pay for additional support until 2022.
Ubuntu 14.04 was released almost five years ago: as the name implies, the operating system was launched in April 2014. Canonical had promised five years of free support and this time window is coming to its natural closure. The company has published a notice inviting companies to prepare for the transition to a new edition of Ubuntu or to purchase an Extended Support Maintenance (ESM) license.
This license allows you to continue receiving updates for a further three years starting from April 2019: in total, Ubuntu 14.04 would be supported for a good eight years. This solution is mainly indicated for large companies: the cost is $50 per machine, with a minimum order of 1,000 machines to support. It is also possible to buy it as part of the Ubuntu Advantage program, costing $150 per machine for a minimum of 50 desktop machines.
Recently, Canonical modified its policies regarding updates: Ubuntu 18.04 will be supported for 10 years (until 2028) and after that date, it will be possible to buy additional support.
The goal of Canonical is to provide a stable platform over time, a particularly important factor in the business and industrial sectors. With the extension of support for the new platforms Canonical will be able to ensure that situations like that of Ubuntu 14.04 are less frequent or, in any case, more extended over time.
