14 DAY TRIAL // Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) has reached the end of its nine-month journey and the distribution has now entered EOL (end of life).
Nothing is going to happen to you in the immediate future if you are using Ubuntu 13.10. EOL means that Ubuntu developers will no longer release security updates for the distribution, which also indicates that the OS will become increasingly insecure as time goes by. You will still be able to use it, but it won't be as safe as possible.
Canonical has a simple support plan for the distributions built by the company. Every two years, a new Ubuntu LTS is released and comes with five years of support. The last one, made available in April, is Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) and will receive security updates until 2019.
Every six months, a new intermediary version is also released, which means that in October we'll get Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn), which will have nine months of support. This version is more like a playground for the developers, and even if the system is considered stable, it's also home for new packages and technologies.
The announcement about the impending death of Ubuntu 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) was made a while ago, so the date of July 17 shouldn't come as a surprise.
"Ubuntu announced its 13.10 (Saucy Salamander) release almost 9 months ago, on October 17, 2013. This was the second release with our new 9 month support cycle and, as such, the support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 13.10 will reach end of life on Thursday, July 17th. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 13.10."
"Ubuntu 14.04 LTS continues to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes," says Canonical's Adam Conrad.
You don't have to reinstall Ubuntu 14.04 LTS over Ubuntu 13.10. You can easily upgrade from one release to another without any other issues. Users just need to run the update manager application, select the sub menu Updates from the Software Sources application, confirm that the "Notify me of a new Ubuntu version" option is set to "For any new version," check for updates, and then simply perform the upgrade.
In case you decide to reinstall the system completely, you can download Ubuntu 14.04 LTS from Softpedia. As it stands right now, Canonical only maintains two LTS releases for the desktop, Ubuntu 12.04 and Ubuntu 14.04, and it will remain like this until the launch of Ubuntu 14.10.