14 DAY TRIAL // Canonical has just announced that Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) will reach end on life in just a couple of weeks, on July 23.
With the exception of Ubuntu LTS versions, all Ubuntu OSes have just nine months of support. It might seem like a really short support period, but intermediary releases are basically just a playground for the developers. On the other hand, LTS editions have five years of support, and a large part of the user base doesn't move beyond these releases.
Canonical switched to this support model a few years back, and it seems to work just fine. No one is complaining about the short support period, and everyone understands what they are getting themselves into when they are installing a version that is non-LTS. Also, the fact that the upgrade process is relatively fast and painless ensures that many users move from one release to another with ease.
End of life is not the end of the world
When a Linux distribution reaches end of life, it doesn't mean that it will stop working, just that it won't receive updates anymore. The operating system will continue to work, but as time passes, it will become increasingly more exposed to bugs, exploits, and other issues.
"Ubuntu announced its 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) release almost 9 months ago, on October 23, 2014. As a non-LTS release, 14.10 has a 9-month month support cycle and, as such, the support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 14.10 will reach end of life on Thursday, July 23rd. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 14.10," noted Adam Conrad from the Ubuntu Release Team.
If you are still running Ubuntu 14.10, then this would be a good time to upgrade to Ubuntu 15.10, which will be supported for another seven months. You can also download the Ubuntu 15.04 ISO from Softpedia if you want to do a clean install.