Mark,
I am emailing you specifically on this as there is no dedicated
Canonical contact. I am also CCing the Community Council and the
Technical Board for awareness, as this is not only a community related
question but a technical related one as it may dictate
technically-defined limitations on support mediums such as IRC and others.
Ever since ESM has been made available for 12.04 and 14.04, there has
been increasing confusion as to what "standard support" means, and how
it applies to community support mediums such as IRC, the Forums, Ask
Ubuntu, etc. Traditionally, it has been accepted that if a release goes
End of Life, it is no longer supported by the community support
mechanisms. Indeed, with 12.04 ESM this held true on Ask Ubuntu [1] in
the past, mostly because "We really should be pushing people to upgrade
to stay on a supported release, even if you can get extended security
updates via ESM because most "new" software won't support old libraries,
and ESM is more or less an extension of time for you to have to upgrade
to newer or for old legacy solutions that need to be kept until
replacement solutions can be found."
However, this question once again is rearing its head on Ask Ubuntu [2],
and though it hasn't landed at the IRC level (as most people don't go
into depth with the argument of "But ESM!" among other things), I would
like to establish governance that is official as to how "End of Life" is
determined from the community's perspective, and would like hard
definitions for the Ubuntu "Standard Support" and "End of Life", and at
what point the community support mechanisms are officially no longer
capable of supporting a given release.
To point at IRCC decisions and policy, the factoids for 14.04 as a prime
example still quote "end of life" and ESM:
> Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) was the 20th release of Ubuntu.
!End-of-life was April 25th, 2019. Paid support (ESM) is available. See
also !esm, !eol, !eolupgrade
> End-Of-Life is when security updates and support for an Ubuntu
release stop. Make sure to update Ubuntu before it goes EOL so you get
updates promptly for newly-discovered security vulnerabilities. See
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOL and
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases for more info. Looking to upgrade from
an EOL release? See https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades
However, as you can see, the "End of Life" name in the original factoid
and "End of Life" definition no longer match Canonical's definitions as
the EOL date is not April 2019, but April 2024 per the wiki [3].
We also have conflicting information about what Ubuntu Advantage
Infrastructure Essential actually entails, as I stated above, as people
simply lump "ESM" and "Support" together at the global / general level
without understanding ESM or UA-I and what it does/doesn't entitle you
to in terms of general support.
Therefore, I would like to achieve the following with discussions and
insight from you and relevant Canonical teams as well:
1. Clarification on the actual definitions of "Standard Support" vs.
"End of Life"
2. More concrete clarification on the difference between "Standard
Support" and "ESM" and what ESM actually implies given that there is a
'free" version of UA-I Essential that's available for 3 systems (50 for
official members) which has no paid support contract attached (but no
definition of "No support contract" distinctly), and
3. Based on the response to points 1 and 2, governance regarding
"Community Support Mediums and the definition of Community End of
Life/Support of a Given Release" which can then distinctly and
concretely define:
A) at what point community support for a release is no longer
available (or alternatively, should not be available) via the IRC chat,
mailing lists, and other support mediums such as Ask Ubuntu (which tends
to follow Ubuntu / Canonical / CC advisories even though they're not
directly under Ubuntu governance), and,
B) once community / standard support is unavailable, definition
that ongoing support issues and need for technical or user support must
be executed via a UA-I Standard contract (which is a Paid Support
contract), and not "Community Support" mechanisms.
Opinions are welcome on this message, as is your suggested guidance and
insight into this, Mark.
Thanks.
Thomas
Ubuntu Community Council Member
[1]:
https://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/18790/is-it-the-time-to-redefine-end-of-life
[2]:
https://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/19510/is-ubuntu-14-04-off-topic-on-ask-ubuntu/19514?noredirect=1
[3]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
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