Ubuntu 14.04 Is Not Supported

Hello,
I wanted to make an extra warning to everyone that Ubuntu LTS 14.04 is no longer being supported by Canonical, who is the main player in programming and putting together Ubuntu. Any further security patches or nuances/bugs will only be covered if you pay Canonical $75 for their Ubuntu Advantage subscription ( https://www.ubuntu.com/support ) for their Extended Security Maintenance (ESM).

A major disadvantage is that there is little to no motivation for the community to look for security issues and patch them in Ubuntu 14.04, since it is old and everyone is supposed to have switched to a newer version of Ubuntu. The population of these servers are heavily decreased, so bugs/security issues will not be noticed and/or fixed as easily.

According to https://www.ubuntu.com/pricing/infra , that will cost $75 per virtual server, or $225 per physical server. However, I do not know if that is per month, or per year. I also do know if there is a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) involved when you receive security patches as an effect of their extended support.

I will try to send Canonical a message to see if I can provide more information regarding this subject, so you guys can know the cost of maintaining the old Ubuntu 14.04 server… I imagine there will be a few special weirdos that have some reason or another to run old stuff.

Well the installer for MIAB wont allow install on 14.04 without heavy modification so that’s good. At this point you should move to 18.04 LTS or get left behind. Don’t offer someone that they can pay XYZ company to maintain older software as this will leave many with security holes still anyway and much wasted money. In my opinion anyway

Yes, @murgero has an excellent point. There is a severe reduction of need and that also affects the overall motivation to fix and continue supporting old operating systems.

You should only purchase extended support if:

(1)
(a) your project specifically requires Ubuntu 14.04, (b) it is critical, and (c) you have determined that it will cost more to migrate services/code/infrastructure from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 18.04;

OR

(2) (a) Security is not a concern to your project (it is safe to assume here in the next several weeks to a month that a Ubuntu 14.04 box is fully vulnerable), and (b) having outdated features, and the lack of ongoing support is not an issue for your project, © outdated network and protocols will not be a problem for the project (there may be a time when our current cryptography is unacceptable for other computers on a network);

OR

(3) (a) you are okay with wasting money, and (b) you have the money to waste, and (c) you are okay with the security patches not being thorough, and (d) you are okay with features being behind.