This has been brought up and we have started planning in order to work the public definitions on these. Will update as we have more insights, but this is a medium-effort project.
-- José Antonio Rey On Tue, Feb 16, 2021, 21:51 Thomas Ward <tew...@ubuntu.com> wrote: > Mark, > > I am emailing you specifically on this as there is no dedicated Canonical > contact. I am also CCing the Community Council and the Technical Board for > awareness, as this is not only a community related question but a technical > related one as it may dictate technically-defined limitations on support > mediums such as IRC and others. > > Ever since ESM has been made available for 12.04 and 14.04, there has been > increasing confusion as to what "standard support" means, and how it > applies to community support mediums such as IRC, the Forums, Ask Ubuntu, > etc. Traditionally, it has been accepted that if a release goes End of > Life, it is no longer supported by the community support mechanisms. > Indeed, with 12.04 ESM this held true on Ask Ubuntu [1] in the past, mostly > because "We really should be pushing people to upgrade to stay on a > supported release, even if you can get extended security updates via ESM > because most "new" software won't support old libraries, and ESM is more or > less an extension of time for you to have to upgrade to newer or for old > legacy solutions that need to be kept until replacement solutions can be > found." > > However, this question once again is rearing its head on Ask Ubuntu [2], > and though it hasn't landed at the IRC level (as most people don't go into > depth with the argument of "But ESM!" among other things), I would like to > establish governance that is official as to how "End of Life" is determined > from the community's perspective, and would like hard definitions for the > Ubuntu "Standard Support" and "End of Life", and at what point the > community support mechanisms are officially no longer capable of supporting > a given release. > > To point at IRCC decisions and policy, the factoids for 14.04 as a prime > example still quote "end of life" and ESM: > > > Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) was the 20th release of Ubuntu. > !End-of-life was April 25th, 2019. Paid support (ESM) is available. See > also !esm, !eol, !eolupgrade > > > End-Of-Life is when security updates and support for an Ubuntu release > stop. Make sure to update Ubuntu before it goes EOL so you get updates > promptly for newly-discovered security vulnerabilities. See > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOL and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases > for more info. Looking to upgrade from an EOL release? See > https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EOLUpgrades > > However, as you can see, the "End of Life" name in the original factoid > and "End of Life" definition no longer match Canonical's definitions as the > EOL date is not April 2019, but April 2024 per the wiki [3]. > > We also have conflicting information about what Ubuntu Advantage > Infrastructure Essential actually entails, as I stated above, as people > simply lump "ESM" and "Support" together at the global / general level > without understanding ESM or UA-I and what it does/doesn't entitle you to > in terms of general support. > > Therefore, I would like to achieve the following with discussions and > insight from you and relevant Canonical teams as well: > > 1. Clarification on the actual definitions of "Standard Support" vs. "End > of Life" > > 2. More concrete clarification on the difference between "Standard > Support" and "ESM" and what ESM actually implies given that there is a > 'free" version of UA-I Essential that's available for 3 systems (50 for > official members) which has no paid support contract attached (but no > definition of "No support contract" distinctly), and > > 3. Based on the response to points 1 and 2, governance regarding > "Community Support Mediums and the definition of Community End of > Life/Support of a Given Release" which can then distinctly and concretely > define: > > A) at what point community support for a release is no longer > available (or alternatively, should not be available) via the IRC chat, > mailing lists, and other support mediums such as Ask Ubuntu (which tends to > follow Ubuntu / Canonical / CC advisories even though they're not directly > under Ubuntu governance), and, > > B) once community / standard support is unavailable, definition that > ongoing support issues and need for technical or user support must be > executed via a UA-I Standard contract (which is a Paid Support contract), > and not "Community Support" mechanisms. > > > Opinions are welcome on this message, as is your suggested guidance and > insight into this, Mark. > > > Thanks. > > > Thomas > Ubuntu Community Council Member > > > [1]: > https://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/18790/is-it-the-time-to-redefine-end-of-life > > [2]: > https://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/19510/is-ubuntu-14-04-off-topic-on-ask-ubuntu/19514?noredirect=1 > > [3]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases > -- > community-council mailing list > community-coun...@lists.ubuntu.com > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/community-council >
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