Lifecycle guide for Ubuntu from Canonical

All releases, patches, maintenance and support periods at a glance

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📅 Last update on 2026-04-16

What is Ubuntu?

Automate product release and end-of-life management

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed mostly of free and open-source software. Ubuntu is officially released in three editions: Desktop, Server and Core for Internet of things devices and robots.

The entire lifecycle of Ubuntu

The following figure shows you the visualised product life cycle of Ubuntu. You can see all releases with the latest patch version, the long-term support characteristics (orange flag in the green circle, the periods for version provision, maintenance and support.

Ubuntu (Canonical) release, version and end-of-life information

Figure: Release, patch and end-of-life cycle of product Ubuntu (Canonical)

What is the Ubuntu release strategy?

Releases of Ubuntu get a development codename (‘HirsuteHippo’) and are versioned by the year and month of delivery. LTS or ‘Long Term Support’ releases are published every two years in April. LTS releases are the ‘enterprise grade’ releases of Ubuntu and are used the most. An estimated 95% of all Ubuntu installations are LTS releases. Every six months between LTS versions, Canonical publishes an interim release of Ubuntu, with 21.04 being the latest example. These are production-quality releases and are supported for 9 months, with sufficient time provided for users to update, but these releases do not receive the long-term commitment of LTS releases.