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.”