Ubuntu announced its 18.04 (Bionic Beaver) release 5 years ago, on April 26, 2018. As with the earlier LTS releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 5 years. The standard support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will transition to Extended Security Maintenance (ESM) on Wednesday, May 31, 2023.
Users are encouraged to evaluate and upgrade to our latest 22.04 LTS release via 20.04 LTS. The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is via Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Instructions and caveats for the upgrades may be found at:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FocalUpgrades for Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/JammyUpgrades for Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 22.04 LTS continue to be actively supported with security updates and bug fixes. All announcements of official security updates for Ubuntu releases are sent to the ubuntu-security-announce mailing list, information about which may be found here:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-security-announce
Canonical provides Extended Security Maintenance for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS to customers through Ubuntu Pro. Further information can be found here:
https://ubuntu.com/blog/18-04-end-of-standard-support
https://www.ubuntu.com/esm
Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users in homes, schools, businesses and governments around the world. Ubuntu is Open Source software, costs nothing to download, and users are free to customise or alter their software in order to meet their needs.
Originally posted to the ubuntu-announce mailing list on Fri May 12 19:39:39 UTC 2023 by Steve Langasek of the Ubuntu Release Team