Announced today, Ubuntu 12.10 aka Quantal Qwetzal and the official variants xubuntu, lubuntu, edubuntu are officially end-of-support 16 May 2014.
So what does this mean?
Well, just like the recent end of support for Windows XP – you are on your own. No more automatic fixes, security updates etc will be forthcoming from Canonical and the community.
You are also, from 16 May 2014, are no longer welcome on Ask Ubuntu. Yes – really. Ask Ubuntu follows the support lifecycle. Anything not officially supported are treated as off-topic. New questions are often – and quickly – closed.
You can try your luck at Ubuntu Forums – but as the number of people using the distro dwindle – unless your question is generic, don’t expect any replies.
More importantly though – you, by staying on 12.10 are not doing the wider Internet community any favours. Your O/S is subject to security flaws and exploits. This can harm others as well because your computer can become part of the bot franchise attacking others. Alarmist? Maybe. But do yourself and your fellow citizens a favour – upgrade or reinstall.
Choices – upgrade to 13.10 – that is the automatic choice offered to you by the update manager.
Reinstall to 14.04 – that is the purist approach – remember 13.10 becomes end-of-support shortly in July this year.
The official announcement is here:
Ubuntu announced its 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) release more than 18 months ago, on October 18, 2012. Since changes to the Ubuntu support cycle mean that Ubuntu 13.04 has reached end of life before Ubuntu 12.10, the support cycle for Ubuntu 12.10 has been extended slightly to overlap with the release of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. This will allow users to move directly from Ubuntu 12.10 to Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (via Ubuntu 13.10). This period of overlap is now coming to a close, and we will be retiring Ubuntu 12.10 on Friday, May 16, 2014. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 12.10. The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 12.10 is via Ubuntu 13.10, though we highly recommend that once you've upgraded to 13.10, you continue to upgrade through to 14.04, as 13.10's support will end in July. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SaucyUpgrades https://help.ubuntu.com/community/TrustyUpgrades Ubuntu 13.10 and 14.04 continue to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes. Announcements of security updates for Ubuntu releases are sent to the ubuntu-security-announce mailing list, information about which may be found at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-security-announce
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