14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Edubuntu maintainer Stéphane Graber has announced on one of the official mailing lists that the upcoming Edubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) operating system won't be released as part of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
We have to admit that the news comes as a shock to us all because Edubuntu is an official flavor and it has been part of the Ubuntu ecosystem from the very beginning, not to mention that the entire project is designed for deployments in various educational institutions, such as schools and universities.
So having a long-term support operating system on a network of computers in an educational facility is vital. Of course, there's Edubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) right now, but it contains some pretty old stuff, despite the fact that version 14.04.4 is out, and it will be supported until April 2019.
"I'm announcing today that Edubuntu will NOT be releasing a 16.04 LTS version. Instead, Jonathan and I will focus on ongoing support of Edubuntu 14.04 LTS until it goes EOL in April 2019," says Stéphane Graber in the mailing list announcement. "That's not to say that Edubuntu is dead, at least not yet."
Is Edubuntu dying?
Again, Edubuntu is currently used in hundreds of thousands of schools and other educational institutions around the globe, so killing such a big project would be a real shame. It's one thing to skip an LTS version and another one to say that the project is "not yet dead," as Mr. Graber's quote above implies.
We don't believe that the Edubuntu operating system is coming to an end anytime soon, and the community will without a doubt help keep it alive. We are a huge community, and if Edubuntu needs a helping hand, we are always here to help with whatever we can.
"It's been a fun ride for the two of us, and we very much hope that this won't be the end of Edubuntu but instead a new beginning for this great Ubuntu flavor," adds Stéphane Graber at the end of his email, implying that they need you! Yes, you! So if you care about the future of Edubuntu, go ahead and help the devs keep it alive.