Ubuntu 14.04 is reaching its end of life on April 30, 2019. This means there will be no security and maintenance updates for Ubuntu 14.04 users beyond this date.
You won’t even get updates for installed applications and you won’t be able to install a new application using apt command or the Software Center without manually modifying the sources.list.
Ubuntu 14.04 was released almost five years ago. That’s the life of a long term support release of Ubuntu.
Check Ubuntu version and see if you are still using Ubuntu 14.04. If that’s the case either on desktops or on servers, you might be wondering what should you do in such a situation.
Let me help you out there. Let me tell you what options do you have in this case.
Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (easiest of them all)
If you have a good internet connection, you can upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 LTS from within Ubuntu 14.04.
Ubuntu 16.04 is also a long term support release and it will be supported till April, 2021. Which means you’ll have two years before another upgrade.
I recommend reading this tutorial about upgrading Ubuntu version. It was originally written for upgrading Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 18.04 but the steps are applicable in your case as well.
Make a backup, do a fresh install of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (ideal for desktop users)
The other option is that you make a backup of your Documents, Music, Pictures, Downloads and any other folder where you have kept essential data that you cannot afford to lose.
When I say backup, it simply means copying these folders to an external USB disk. In other words, you should have a way to copy the data back to your computer because you’ll be formatting your system.
I would recommend this option for the desktop users. Ubuntu 18.04 is the current long term support release and it will be supported till at least April, 2023. You have four long years before you are forced for another upgrade.
Pay for extended security maintenance and continue using Ubuntu 14.04
This is suited for
Ubuntu Advantage program users also have the Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) feature. This program provides security updates even after reaching the end of life for a given version.
This comes at a cost. It costs $225 per year per physical node for server users. For desktop users, the price is $150 per year. You can read the detailed pricing of the Ubuntu Advantage program here.
Still using Ubuntu 14.04?
If you are still using Ubuntu 14.04, you should start exploring your options as you have less than two months to go.
In any case, you must not use Ubuntu 14.04 after 30 April 2019 because your system will be vulnerable due to lack of security updates. Not being able to install new applications will be an additional major pain.
So, what option do you choose here? Upgrading to Ubuntu 16.04 or 18.04 or paying for the ESM?
I used Trusty for many years on my desktop and put off upgrading; when I recently tried to upgrade to 16.04, it eventually completed with no GUI. I then installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS from USB and am very happy with it so far, the installation went flawlessly, quickly, and it recognised the old Trusty partition and installed on top. I recommend a clean install.
How much more resource does 16.04 demand, compared to 14.04? Having an old laptop has its limits…
I would love to do an upgrade but I have an Intel Compute STCK-1A8LFC which doesn’t even have space to install security updates that it needs. I would love to extend the root to an SD card among other things in order to force an upgrade but, I keep running into issues. My understanding is that this thing is not upgrade-able but I don’t buy that. I would imagine there are ways to do it but that it’s not meant to be easy.
I tried just about every newer version in virtualbox on my trusty tahr, but I still haven’t made any switch. There is something about it that is just too comfortable and familiar and everything still works perfectly fine.