As anticipated, support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is now over — but don’t panic if you still use it as this it;s not the end of the road.
Not yet anyway!
Ubuntu 18.04 ‘Bionic Beaver’ lives on through Expanded Security Maintenance1, or ESM.
Users who enable this will receive a further 5 years of core security updates from Canonical and Ubuntu developers.
ESM isn’t automatic but it is easy to enable.
To benefit, you need to sign up for an Ubuntu Pro subscription, which is free for regular users on up to 5 devices. Then link your computer(s) via the Software & Updates app.
After this you will get security updates covering 23,000 packages in the Ubuntu Universe repository, across amd64, arm64, s390X, and PowerPC architectures. Without Ubuntu Pro these packages are only patched on a “best effort” basis.
Together, the LTS support and Ubuntu Pro/ESM offers 10 years of security coverage from release.
However, ESM is a crutch for people who can’t upgrade to a newer version (for reasons) and not a reason to NOT upgrade. Technology marches on and, generally, it pays to keep pace, especially if you’re a desktop user.
Ubuntu Pro gives you high and critical CVE security updates but it doesn’t bring you new versions of software, nor new features, new Linux kernels, or new GPU drivers. For those benefits you must migrate to a more recent LTS or short-term release.
People who don’t upgrade and don’t enable ESM will, obviously, get no more updates from Ubuntu from May 31, 2023. None. Nada. Zero. Zilch.
While 3rd-party PPAs may continue to support the release, as will extra-repo sources like Snap and Flatpak, those updates comes on a patchwork and noncommittal basis.
Personally, I say use this opportunity to bid bon voyage to the Bionic Beaver and flip up to the Focal Fossa, which has general support until 2025, and ESM until 2030. Or go get the jump on the Jammy Jellyfish, which has general support until 2027, and ESM until 2032.
1 I always thought ESM stood for ‘extended security maintenance’ but the ESM landing page refers to it as ‘expanded security maintenance’.