Ubuntu’s numerous releases enjoy both life and death throughout the year. Now that it’s 2009, we look forward to six milestones for five different versions.

  • January 22: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron, starts the year off by reaching it’s second point release (8.04.2).
  • April: Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, reaches it’s End Of Life status ending support and security updates. Users are urged to upgrade to a newer version to continue receiving security fixes.
  • April 23: Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope, officially released into the wild after its six month build process.
  • June: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Dapper Drake, Ubuntu’s first LTS reaches its End Of Life status for the Desktop edition. This includes each of its two subsequent point releases. The Server edition will be supported for another two years until 2011. Desktop users will be urged to upgrade to continue receiving security fixes.
  • July: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS Hardy Heron, reaches it’s third point release (8.04.3) with one more scheduled in 2010 before the next LTS version.
  • October: Ubuntu 9.10, whose codename is yet to be determined, should be released to the public.

The dates shown above are taken from various www.ubuntu.com and wiki.ubuntu.com pages, and are considered tentative. Official announcements can be followed at Ubuntu’s News page or by subscribing to their latest news RSS feed.

Ubuntu’s releases get updates and security fixes for 18 months following their release dates. LTS (Long Term Support) releases get support for 3 years for the Desktop edition and 5 years for the Server edition.

LTS releases also reach milestones called “point releases” where, among certain bug fixes and enhancements, the packages on the install CD/DVDs are brought up to date with their current versions. There is some confusion for new users who think that these represent brand new releases. They’re only meant to reduce the amount of updates required from the repositories in order to bring new installations up to date. Current installations will reach these point releases automatically throughout the regular use of the update process.

An excellent graph showing the release cycle of up-coming versions can be found here.

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