Release Information Overhaul

[captn3m0]

Page: https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle

This is the only page on the whole Ubuntu ecosystem that provides accurate information about the different "Hardware and maintenance updates"/"Maintenance updates" timelines for various releases.

Every other page:

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/TimeBasedReleases
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReleaseSchedule
• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReleaseTeam

does not provide this split and instead showcases ESM EoL as the End-of-Life. For the majority of Ubuntu users, the end of maintenance updates is when their release goes EoL - however every page on the Wiki uses incorrect terminology.

Not every user will understand that (on the Wiki):

Standard Support = Hardware and maintenance updates + Maintenance updates End of Life = (Paid) Extended Security Maintenance (ESM)

As a result, the only page providing accurate information is https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle. However, that has a huge accessibility concern in that the information is only provided in graph format. As a user, the most common question for me on that page is:

1. When is Security support for my release of Ubuntu running out?
2. Is my release still getting maintenance updates?

Neither of these can be easily answered.

Recommendations:

1. Provide a table for every graph on that page, preferably one that is statically rendered so that it gets indexed correctly on search engines (and shows up on change detection tools for alerting). Edit: Looks like there is a table, but it gets hidden on desktop devices.
2. Provide a "current-date" line on each graph that provides an immediate visual representation of where each release currently stands. See https://www.php.net/supported-versions.php for an example
3. Change the "Interim release Standard Support" wording. It confuses everyone. Instead, just use commonly-understood terms such as "Active support" / "Security Support" (See php.net again) with clarifications in text if needed.
4. Fix the tables in the Wiki to make it clear that EoL dates are ESM-EoL dates, and what the exact support dates are.

Filing this since I maintain https://endoflife.date/ubuntu, and Ubuntu has gotten worse in how it communicates this information across.

[captn3m0]

Ref: https://github.com/endoflife-date/endoflife.date/pull/163

[pmahnke]

@captn3m0 not entirely sure what you are asking, but there is a table for every chart that we show on small screens. It is statically part of the page and just hidden with css on larger screens.

See this example:

Perhaps there are some things we can do to make it more visible for people using assistive devices?

I like the PHP example and we are looking at doing something similar for special LTS release pages soon.

The web team doesn't maintain the wiki, but I can ask the release team about it.

For https://endoflife.date/ubuntu what do you need? are you scraping a page of ours?

[captn3m0]

I did notice the HTML tables while opening the page without javascript, but there are two issues:

1. it should not take a user a special device, this should always be present
2. The tables do not differentiate between "Hardware and maintenance updates", "Maintenance updates" for the LTS releases.

(2) is the core concern here - this information is nowhere present in text format anywhere. As an example, Ubuntu 14.04 was:

• released in April 2014
• Got hardware and maintenance updates till April 2016
• Got maintenance updates till April 2019, when it became EoL
• ESM support was from April 2019 - April 2022

Of these, the "April 2016" date is missing from the table both on https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle as well as the Wiki.

For https://endoflife.date/ubuntu what do you need?

Just a table that includes the following for every release:

1. Release Date
2. Active Support Date ("Hardware and maintenance updates" for Ubuntu?)
3. Security Support Date ("Maintenance updates"?). This counts as EoL for most folks.
4. ESM Support Date.

Right now, we only get 1,3,4.

are you scraping a page of ours?

Not scraping, just monitoring. Ubuntu's release schedule is easy to track :+1:

For the release team: I might be wrong, but I don't think the Release+2 years policy for "Hardware and maintenance updates" policy is publicly documented. The /Releases wiki page notes:

Support length

• Regular releases are supported for 9 months.
• Packages in main and restricted are supported for 5 years in long term support (LTS) releases. Flavors generally support their packages for 3 years in LTS releases but there are exceptions. See the release notes for specific details.

So the actual "Hardware and maintenance updates" v/s "Maintenance updates" split ends up being documented nowhere. It would be nice to have an explanation for what the split means for users.

[stale[bot]]

🧹 This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[captn3m0]

not stale.

[captn3m0]

On a related note, as (reported here by @witchcraze), the Ubuntu Wiki switched from noting the end of "maintenance updates" date as End of life to using ESM EoL dates.

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
• https://web.archive.org/web/20190405151816/https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

Such changes impact trust in the Ubuntu brand.

There's still too much undocumented information, as well as inaccessible information (the table is still not visible on desktops).

[captn3m0]

Another related issue noticed today. The support date for 18.04 got extended to May 31st 2023 from April 2023.

But the Wiki page hasn't been updated accordingly. Having a single consolidated page will avoid such issues.

[petesfrench]

Hi @captn3m0, we recently overhauled https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle. This included changes to what information is being displayed and including the table on desktop views. Can you confirm if this issue has been addressed? And if has not, specify what changes you are still inspecting and we can get the work scheduled.

[captn3m0]

Thanks for the ping. The current version is substantially better from when this issue was opened. I still have a few pending concerns:

1. The information being split between website and wiki still creates issues. This page on the Wiki still lists 14.04 as ESM for example.
2. "Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) provides security updates on Ubuntu LTS releases for additional 5 years." on the Wiki does not clarify when additional 5 years starts.
3. The Wiki uses the term "End of Life" in a lot of places. This term is never defined. Neither is "Standard Support".
4. The "current status" of each release is hard to discover on https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle
5. The Ubuntu LTS feature split graphic (https://assets.ubuntu.com/v1/f6aa32ab-Ubuntu+LTS+Base+OS_2024.svg) is not visible on mobile devices.
6. On some small devices (admittedly very few), the table truncates text.
7. The status of universe/multiverse is not explained at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases, but main/restricted is - leading to partial information.

I don't have suggestions since I don't know how the information split between the Wiki and website is decided. But any information-category (such as support information) that is duplicated between the wiki and website causes confusion to end-users. Users should be redirect to the canonical 😀 page, and potentially the Wiki could be used to hold "extra" information (such as exact release dates, announcements, list of completely EOL releases etc).

[petesfrench]

@captn3m0 We can definitely take a look at the issues highlighted on https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle, and I will create an issue in our backlog to address this. But we are not responsible for updating https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases, so the best I can do is communicate these concerns.