In a post on the project's security announce mailing list, Ubuntu Release Manager Kate Stewart has reminded users that Ubuntu 9.10, code named Karmic Koala, will reach its end of life at the end of April. As such, after Friday 29 April 2011, no new updates, including security updates and critical fixes, will be available.

Version 9.10 of the Debian-derived Linux distribution was released on 29 October 2009. Based on version 2.6.31 of the Linux kernel, it featured the GNOME 2.28 desktop environment and used Ext4 as its default file system. Notable changes included a new, more presentable boot screen and a standard default desktop theme in very dark brown.

Karmic Koala users are advised to upgrade to a later release to continue receiving updates. The developers note that users wanting to upgrade to 10.10 from 9.10 will have to upgrade to 10.04 first. Standard releases of Ubuntu are supported for 18 months of updates for both the desktop and server versions, while Long Term Support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu are supported for three years for the desktop releases and five years for server releases.

The current development release is Ubuntu 11.04 Alpha 3, code named "Natty Narwhal, from earlier this month. The final version of Natty Narwhall is scheduled to be released on 28 April 2011. The latest stable release is version 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat", while the current Long Term Support (LTS) version is Ubuntu 10.04.2 LTS "Lucid Lynx". Ubuntu is sponsored by UK based Canonical Ltd.

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(crve)