Ubuntu announced the release of 7.04 almost 18 months ago, on 19 April 2007. As with the earlier releases, Ubuntu committed to ongoing security and critical fixes for a period of 18 months. The support period is now nearing its end and Ubuntu 7.04 will reach end of life on Sunday, October 19th, 2008. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 7.04.

The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 7.04 is via Ubuntu 7.10. Instructions and caveats for the upgrade may be found at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GutsyUpgrades. Note that upgrades to version 8.04 LTS and beyond are only supported in multiple steps, via an upgrade first to 7.10, then to 8.04 LTS. Both Ubuntu 7.10 and Ubuntu 8.04 LTS continue to be actively supported with security updates and select high-impact bug fixes. All announcements of official 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.

The Ubuntu Server community wants to ask a broad set of users to share just exactly how they are using Ubuntu Server and in what kind of organisations. A previous shorter survey from Canonical was completed by those requesting free server CDs, but this is the first time the Ubuntu server team is requesting information from the community worldwide.

Co-sponsored by RedMonk Research, the survey [http://survey.ubuntu.com/] will gather more detailed knowledge in order to:

• Improve future product releases
• Prioritize feature requests
• Guide partnerships to add technologies
• Drive the focus at the next Ubuntu Developer Summit in December 2008

The anonymous survey takes 10 to 20 minutes to complete and is open to anyone deploying Linux servers today, whether or not they use Ubuntu. The Ubuntu Server Community Team will present the results in the beginning of December.

“Our survey earlier this year provided insight into the diversity and global reach of the Ubuntu Server customer base,” said Nick Barcet, Ubuntu Server product manager. “With this survey, we hope to understand more about them – including how they are using our software in their businesses – in order to better serve them in the future.”

With the release of Ubuntu 8.10 approaching rapidly, Mark Shuttleworth has announced plans for Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope. The overarching goal is to provide a better user experience, one that not only matches existing consumer platforms, but sets a new standard.

Keeping that in mind, a goal of Jaunty Jackalope is to decrease boot and resume times. Deep integration of desktop and web applications will be pursued. Discussions related to bridging the gap between both types of applications started at UDS-Prague and will continue in Mountain View.

Since collaboration is key to the open source ecosystem, Jaunty will provide new ways for developers to work with Ubuntu. All of Ubuntu will be moved into Bazaar. This will allow any package to be easily branched, modified, and built for PPAs. Developers interested in specific packages will also be able to participate outside of the usual MOTU and core-dev structure.

Much of this hinges on the planning that will go on at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, in the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, Monday 8th – Friday 12th December 2008. UDS historically involved Canonical employees and sponsored community contributors. For Mountain View, anyone from the community can submit a request to be sponsored.

Individuals sponsored will be expected to lead a discussion in one of the key topics for Ubuntu 9.04:

• Networking
• Power Management
• Desktop Experience
• Booting
• Hardware Support
• Sharing and Backup
• Desktop Configuration
• Server Configuration
• Network Authentication
• Security
• Community
• Mobile
• QA
• Other

Discussions should center around an Ubuntu Brainstorm idea.

To increase the odds of sponsorship, community contributions like keeping up with 5-A-Day and helping with the sponsorship queue will be beneficial. Volunteering to do crew duty is also a plus.

See Jono Bacon’s post for more details on how to get sponsored.

The deadline for sponsorship requests is Thursday 25th September 2008.