14 DAY TRIAL // After receiving five years of support, the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) operating system is finally reaching its end of life next month, on April 28, 2017, according to Canonical's Adam Conrad.
Announced on April 26, 2012, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was dubbed by Mark Shuttleworth as the "Precise Pangolin." It shipped with the Linux 3.2.12 kernel, GNOME 3.4.1 desktop environment, X.Org 7.6, X.Org Server 1.11.4, Upstart 1.5, both Python 2.7.3 and 3.2.3, GCC 4.6.3, as well as the Unity 5.10 2D and 3D interfaces.
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS was the first release of the popular GNU/Linux distribution to introduce the HUD (Head-Up Display) feature, among many other innovative changes, such as a Unity Video lens, an intelligent login screen, and support for resizing and configuring the behavior of the Unity Launcher.
During these past five years, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) received a total of five point releases, the last one being Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS, which brought the HWE Linux 3.13 kernel from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr). But, as all good things must come to an end, Canonical will no longer provide security updates for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.
Introducing the Ubuntu 12.04 ESM (Extended Security Maintenance)
Today, Canonical informs all users of the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating system that they should upgrade their systems to either the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) or Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) releases before April 28, 2017. However, the company also introduced the Ubuntu 12.04 ESM (Extended Security Maintenance).
"For those who cannot upgrade immediately, Ubuntu 12.04 ESM updates will help ensure the on-going security and integrity of Ubuntu 12.04 systems," reads the announcement. "These updates are delivered in a secure, private archive exclusively available to Ubuntu Advantage customers on a per-node basis."
Therefore, if you can afford to purchase the Ubuntu Advantage package from Canonical's online store, and you still want to use Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) on your infrastructure, you should wait until private archive is opened once the end of life is reached. Otherwise, we recommend upgrading to a newer Ubuntu release.