End of life on July 14, 2009

Jul 9, 2009 08:02 GMT  ·  By

Dear Ubuntu users, the time has come to say goodbye to the Desktop Edition of the first LTS (Long Term Support) release of the popular Ubuntu operating system, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake), as on July 14th it will reach end of life. This means that, starting with July 14th, Canonical will stop "feeding" its Ubuntu 6.06 LTS operating system with security/critical fixes and software updates! Those of you who still use Dapper Drake and want to upgrade will have to choose the other LTS release, Ubuntu 8.04.3, which will be made available later today. On the other hand, the Server Edition of Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake), which is now at version 6.06.2, will be supported until June 2011.

Announced three years ago, on June 1st, 2006, Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) was the first long-term-support version of the Ubuntu OS and it was powered by the Linux kernel 2.6.15 and GNOME 2.14. Dapper Drake was an important release, because at that point in time Kubuntu became part of the Ubuntu family! Long Term Support editions are released every two years and are supported for 3 years on the desktop and 5 years on the server. Ubuntu 6.06 was the first LTS release, followed by Ubuntu 8.04 on April 2008. The next LTS release will be Ubuntu 10.04, due out on April 2010.

This is how Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Dapper Drake) looked, 3 years ago...

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...and this is how it looks now, with the Ubuntu 9.04 release...
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What is Ubuntu? Ubuntu is an open-source piece of software, 100% FREE to download and use. Users are free to customize or alter the included software in order to meet their needs. Since its launch in October 2004, Ubuntu has become one of the most highly regarded Linux distributions with millions of users in homes, businesses, schools and governments around the globe. The current release is Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) and the next one, expected at the end of October, will be Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). Take a look at our detailed review of Ubuntu 9.04 or download it right now from Softpedia.

Detailed information about how to upgrade from Ubuntu 6.06 LTS to Ubuntu 8.04 LTS can be found here.