Almost any Ubuntu user knows when new versions arrive and how long they are supported. Every six months they release a normal cycle version, and the support is 9 months for all flavors. Even-numbered years in April they release an LTS version that is initially supported for 5 years, 3 flavors, but sometimes Canonical stretches a bit more and does what made with the Long Term Support versions released in 2014 and 2016, i.e. Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 16.04.
Canonical has announced that Xenial Xerus and Trusty Tahr will go from five years to endured for ten years. It is the same support that they already announced that Bionic Beaver and Focal Fossa would have, with which the new expiration dates of the Xerus and the Tahr will go to 2026 and 2024 respectively. Of course, it must be taken into account that the support is ESM, which will allow them to continue receiving security updates, but not new functions.
Ubuntu 16.04 and 14.04 will expire in 2026 and 2024
"With the prolongation of the lifecycle of Ubuntu 14.04 and 16.04 LTS, we are entering a new page in our commitment to enable enterprise environments", said Nikos Mavrogiannopoulos, Canonical's Product Manager. “Each industry sector has its own deployment life cycle and adopts technology at different rates. We are bringing an operating system lifecycle that enables organizations to manage their infrastructure on their terms. "
Canonical says that this extension in the support of the LTS versions is motivated because its customers have a better economy in the infrastructure updates, and in the what is safety for all types of equipment, but more in those used for companies. For a normal user, five years is more than enough to decide to make the leap, but in companies the operating system is reinstalled much less, or if not, they tell those companies that still work with Windows XP or, worse still , Windows 95.
In May 2021, Ubuntu 16.04 reached the end of its life cycle, and now it's like ESM, a label that, like Ubuntu 14.04, will end when it turns ten.