Official support for Ubuntu 17.04 ‘Zesty Zapus’ ends on January 13, 2018.
Which, if you haven’t been paying attention to the calendar, is this week.
The news mean that, as of January 13, anyone running Ubuntu 17.04 on a server, laptop or desktop PC will get no further security updates, critical fixes, or updated packages from the main Ubuntu archives.
None. Nada. Zilch.
Now, in all honesty, I can’t imagine anyone reading this post still runs Ubuntu 17.04. Ubuntu 17.10 is (somewhat) available, and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS will get updates well into the early part of the next decade
Zesty Zapus holdouts need to de-zen and think about upgrading to Ubuntu 17.10 (or doing a fresh install of another supported Linux distro) shortly.
And it’s not difficult, either. We’ve written about how to upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10 from an earlier release before, should a guide be needed. Our Ubuntu 17.10 review takes a closer look at all the changes (and there are many of them) shipping in the release.
Zesty – Short on Flavour
Ubuntu 17.04 ‘Zesty Zapus was the final version of Ubuntu to use the Unity 7 desktop (and associated parts) by default.
Subsequent releases use the GNOME Shell desktop environment, the Wayland display server (where it works), and the GNOME Display Manager (GDM).
In terms of “new” features in Ubuntu 17.04 there were …Well, none. This release did stop creating swap partitions for systems with ample RAM, and shipped atop the Linux Kernel 4.10. But besides package updates and a new wallpaper there was little else of note.
Do you still use Ubuntu 17.04? Was it your first taste of Ubuntu? Share your thoughts in the comments below.