Ubuntu 17.04 was the last release of Ubuntu to use Unity 7

Jan 5, 2018 23:30 GMT  ·  By

Canonical announced today that it's putting an end to the support offered by the Linux company for its Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" operating system next week on January 13.

Launched last year on April 13, Ubuntu 17.04 was a powerful release, both inside and outside, running the latest (at that time) stable Linux 4.10 kernel series and shipping with an up-to-date graphics stack based on Mesa 17.0 and X.Org Server 1.19 series. It was also the last Ubuntu release to ship with the Unity 7 desktop by default.

"As a non-LTS release, 17.04 has a 9-month support cycle and, as such, will reach end of life on Saturday, January 13th," says Steve Langasek, Engineering Manager, Ubuntu Foundations at Canonical. "At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 17.04."

Users are urged to upgrade to Ubuntu 17.10 immediately

Canonical urges all Ubuntu 17.04 users to update their installations to the latest Ubuntu 17.10 release, as it won't release patches for Meltdown and Spectre bugs. Unfortunately, at least for Unity 7 fans, Ubuntu 17.10 ships with the GNOME 3.26 desktop by default. However, some of their Unity 7 settings will be saved after the upgrade.

The Ubuntu Desktop team tried their best to make the GNOME desktop environment look and feel as much as possible with the Unity 7 user experience. Well, at least the look resembles Unity 7, because the feel is entirely different, yet very friendly (we can say that from our experience so far with Ubuntu 17.10).

You can follow our straightforward instructions on how to upgrade Ubuntu 17.04 to Ubuntu 17.10, or rely on Canonical's caveats found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Upgrades. Whatever you do, do not download the Ubuntu 17.10 ISO and reinstall, as it can break the BIOS of your computer if you're using a Lenovo laptop.

Some Acer and Toshiba laptops are affected as well, and a temporary workaround is available, but it is recommended to wait until Canonical releases respin versions of Ubuntu 17.10's ISO images for desktops, which could be out as soon as next week - as a little birdie told us.

Thanks Simon Quigley for the tip!