The operating system will no longer receive updates

Jul 19, 2018 00:01 GMT  ·  By

As of today, July 19, 2018, the Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) operating system reached end of life and will no longer be supported by Canonical with software and security updates.

Released nine months ago on October 19, 2017, Ubuntu 17.10 was dubbed "Artful Aardvark" by Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth because it was the first release of the Ubuntu Linux operating system to ship with the GNOME desktop environment instead of Unity on the Desktop edition.

To due to the sudden move from Unity to GNOME, Ubuntu 17.10 brought several substantial changes, such as the switch to the next-generation Wayland display server by default instead of X.Org Server, a decision that was reverted with the release of Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), and the discontinuation of the Ubuntu GNOME flavor.

But, as we reported earlier this month, all good things must come to an end and Canonical will terminate support for the Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) release on July 19, 2018, due to it being a non-LTS release supported for only 9 months. This means that, from now on, Ubuntu 17.10 users will no longer receive software and security updates.

Ubuntu 17.10 users must upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

No one will stop you from using Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) on your personal computer, but in time, the operating system will become vulnerable to various threats and attacks, and your favorite applications won't be updated anymore, except probably if you're using third-party packages like Flatpak or AppImage.

That's why we recommend upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) as soon as possible if you're still using Ubuntu 17.10 (Artful Aardvark) on your personal computer or server. The upgrade path for Ubuntu 17.10 users is through Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, which is a long-term support release that will receive updates for the next 5 years.

Before attempting an upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver), make sure you have a recent backup of your files. However, if possible, it's better to do a fresh install instead of upgrading, so we recommend you wait one more week for Canonical to release the Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS point release on July 26, 2018.

That way, you won't have to download hundreds of updates from the repositories after installing Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Of course, this does not apply if you decide to upgrade directly from Ubuntu 17.10 to Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. The rest of the official Ubuntu 17.10 flavors have also reached end of life, so make sure you upgrade.