If you can hear ticking its ‘cos the clock is running down on the Cosmic Cuttlefish, better known to most as Ubuntu 18.10.
Yes, Ubuntu 18.10 end of life hits on July 18, 2019. Any spacefaring cephalopods still in orbit after this time will need to plot a course to the nearest short-term release (just follow the signs to Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo) to continue receiving updates.
‘If you use Ubuntu 18.10 beyond July 18 you will not receive any further updates from Canonical’
Are there many Ubuntu-nauts out there still riding this particular Ubuntu release? Probably not; most folks tend to go long-haul with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or enjoy the six month short hops offered by the interim releases.
But on the off chance that some stragglers do indeed exist let me stress, stern teacher style, firmly in their direction, that anyone using Ubuntu 18.10 beyond July 18 you will not receive any further updates from Canonical.
This means no new Firefox, no new Thunderbird, and no critical security fixes!
So it behoves — wow, that’s the first time I’ve used that word in my life — those affected to upgrade soon, and upgrade sharpish!
The good news is that it’s super easy to upgrade to Ubuntu 19.04 from 18.10. I’m talking “click a button” easy.
A spare half an hour, a reliable internet connection, and some cat videos to pass the time with is all you need.
Need a reminder of what crop of changes the Cosmic Cuttlefish brought forth? Relive the release in all its (now dated) glory by watching our Ubuntu 18.10 recap video below (just turn the sound up because boy did I fudge the audio in this vid…):