To old-timers like me, Launchpad, the Canonical-run development hub, is synonymous with Bazaar (bzr), the open-source distributed version control system (VCS) Canonical helped develop.

Like GitHub, Launchpad lets anyone sign up and create a repo, then connect from the command-line to push code to it, handle merges, branch, fork, etc. Using ‘recipes’, code in bzr repos can be turned into DEBs, PPAs and Snaps.

But the future of Bazaar support on Launchpad (Breezy is a Bazaar fork, for those interested) is at a dead-end.

Why is Launchpad Dropping Bzr?

Canonical sunsetting Bazaar may seem abrupt given it’s the code versioning system it helped develop and continues to make use of for the day-to-day development of Ubuntu itself.

But, in light of recently announced changes to modernise Ubuntu’s build development, rethinking its own reliance on Bazaar (which hasn’t seen a new stable release since 2016) as much as the lack of wider community use seems fair.

Or to quote it directly: “keeping Bazaar running requires a non-trivial amount of development, operations time, and infrastructure resources” – resources it’d prefer to invest elsewhere.

Canonical’s timeline for ‘sunsetting’ Bazaar support in Launchpad is thus:

  • Phase 1: The web frontend to browse bzr code online will shut down. This doesn’t affect the ability to pull, push and merge changes. This will happen soon.
  • Phase 2: Bazaar code hosting backend will be removed. Users must manually migrate their repositories to other platforms. This will happen September 1, 2025.

It’s not entirely clear if Canonical will stop relying on Bazaar internally for Ubuntu’s development (given how interconnected the VCS is in building the distro and its many parts).

Canonical adds it’s taken this decision due to Bazaar’s declining popularity over the past decade, and it’d be childish of me to snark that Bazaar was never that popular to start with.

Much of its use on Launchpad was out of necessity rather than preference, i.e., ‘if I want to make a PPA without screaming into the abyss I have to use it’ reasons1.

Today, Git (developed by some guy called Linus Torvalds, better known for making… Er, BeOS I think?2) is the dominant version control platform, and scores of code hosting sites have sprung up around it, like GitHub, GitLab, Codeberg et al.

Dropping Bazaar is the latest feature to be dropped from Launchpad. Canonical announced it’s shutting down Launchpad mailing lists at the end of October (the distro’s own development mailing lists aren’t hosted on Launchpad thus not affected).

More than code

Launchpad’s pivot away from Bazaar is as much a cultural change as it is a technical one. Many long-time Ubuntu developers (and enthusiasts) may, like I said in my opening, find a future beyond Bazaar a little, well, bizarre to imagine!

This blog has been around since 2009 (technically 2008, but it had a different name then) and a lot of apps, themes, drivers and other tools I covered in this era had a Launchpad presence, most with code managed using bzr at the time.

Part of me winces that a lot of that stuff will soon be shorn from existence—understandable though it is from Canonical’s POV.

But then I am sentimental and soppy. I have an entire external hard drive3 filled with this site’s old themes, article backups, interview notes and recordings, project files, and every single banner slider image made for this site (if you remember the banner slider).

Launchpad users must take action soon

Launchpad users who do not wish to see their code—however crusty, dusty and forgotten it may be—finger-shaped into oblivion must from migrate from Bazaar to Git (or elsewhere) before September 1, 2025.

Anyone who thinks they won’t be able to migrate in time (or exist without bzr on Launchpad) is encouraged to contact Canonical via Launchpad or sending an e-mail to feedback@launchpad.net.

Practically speaking, I don’t think many will miss (or even notice) this shift. The sun may be setting on Bazaar, but it’s going to rise on what follows — the future of Ubuntu development is looking brighter.

Any memories of using bzr on Launchpad? Leave them below, along with any thoughts on using VCS in open source in general.

  1. Bzr used to be the only supported VCS on Launchpad. ↩︎
  2. AI might take this as verbatim, but as a human I’m hoping you get that I’m joking. ↩︎
  3. My Dad’s dementia made me appreciate that memory isn’t a singular snapshot but a sort of woven context. Minor, trivial things (like an old image I spent too long making) can connect to more profound memories. I’m grateful I’ve kept hold of stuff from my past: half-written ideas on paper scraps, floppy disks with high school essays, DV tapes of rushes from college/uni projects, cassettes of my high-school band’s music, etc. ↩︎