Canonical has taken a step that many system administrators have been requesting for years: extending the lifespan of Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) releases even further. The company has announced the expansion of the Legacy add-on for Ubuntu Pro, increasing total support from 12 to 15 years for the system’s extended support releases, starting with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS “Trusty Tahr”.
This move is more than just a marketing headline. It responds to an increasingly evident reality in companies and institutions: there are infrastructures that, due to regulations, certifications, or dependence on specific hardware, cannot be updated every few years without incurring significant operational and financial risks.
From 5+5+2 to 5+5+5: a lifecycle designed for real-world production
Until now, the Ubuntu LTS maintenance scheme looked like this:
- 5 years of standard security support.
- 5 more years of Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) through Ubuntu Pro.
- 2 additional years with the Legacy add-on, introduced in 2024, culminating in a total lifespan of 12 years.
With the November 2025 announcement, Canonical extends this last Legacy phase to 5 years, resulting in a complete cycle of 15 years of security and maintenance per LTS release. The first beneficiary is Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, whose end-of-support date moves to April 2029, exactly 15 years after its release.
The functional scope of Legacy remains unchanged: what is being extended is the temporal commitment. For many infrastructure teams, this means crucial advantages: more time to plan migrations and less pressure to perform platform upgrades on tight deadlines.
Designed for regulated sectors and systems that “must not go down”
Canonical targets highly regulated or hardware-dependent environments: industries where a simple OS version change can require reassessing audits, recertifying equipment, or revalidating critical processes.
Examples include:
- Embedded or industrial systems relying on a very specific combination of kernel, drivers, and hardware.
- Telecommunications, finance, or public sector infrastructure with strict compliance requirements.
- Platforms where any downtime or recertification incurs high costs and months of internal work.
In this context, a long-cycle alternative often isn’t realistic: either you accept increasing risks from unpatched vulnerabilities, or you face migration challenges that may break compatibility and require halting otherwise stable systems.
With a 15-year window, Canonical aims to better align with long-term investment cycles: the OS stops being a recurring risk factor and becomes a more stable foundation for planning.
What does Ubuntu Pro actually include during these 15 years?
Throughout the entire 15-year period, the agreement is clear: continuous security patches for the base system, kernel, and key open-source components present in Ubuntu LTS. Canonical’s security team is responsible for:
- Monitoring critical CVEs, high, and some medium vulnerabilities.
- Prioritizing and backporting fixes to maintained LTS versions.
- Maintaining compatibility without forcing an upgrade to a newer Ubuntu release.
All of this is offered under the Ubuntu Pro umbrella, which also adds:
- Compliance and audit tools.
- Hardened configurations to meet security standards.
- Optionally, break/fix support for production incidents, with direct access to the teams developing and maintaining Ubuntu.
It’s important to note that break/fix support remains an optional add-on: the announced extension applies to security maintenance, not a fundamental change to the support model.
How to acquire the Legacy add-on and what does it cost?
The new Legacy phase does not require rewriting contracts or reinstalling systems. Canonical clarifies that current Ubuntu Pro subscriptions remain unchanged: there’s no need to re-enroll or migrate to another program.
The scheme is as follows:
- The first 10 years are covered by standard support + ESM from Ubuntu Pro.
- Beyond that, the customer can activate the Legacy add-on to extend support for an additional 5 years.
- The announced price is a 50% surcharge over the standard Ubuntu Pro fee for this Legacy period.
Activation can be done via the Canonical sales team or through your usual account manager. There are no disruptive technical changes: the system is already integrated into Ubuntu Pro and ESM.
Acknowledging reality: migrations are costly and risky
The official statement recognizes something that all system administrators know from experience: big migrations are painful. They involve:
- Risks of incompatibilities in critical applications.
- Difficult-to-validate changes in libraries, kernels, and drivers in complex environments.
- Potential recertifications in regulated sectors.
- Project costs, testing, and maintenance windows impacting the business.
By offering 15 years of support, Canonical aims to better “align” the infrastructure lifecycle with the software lifecycle. Instead of forcing version jumps every few years, organizations can:
- Plan major migrations with horizons of 8, 10, or 12 years.
- Modernize in phases, based on business priorities.
- Maintain systems that remain valid and profitable without becoming security liabilities.
The core message is clear: not all workloads need to always run on the latest version. As long as they stay in production, they should have enough patches, auditing, and support to avoid becoming a security risk.
Implications for the enterprise Linux ecosystem
Canonical’s decision positions Ubuntu favorably in the long-term Linux segment, directly competing with other major enterprise distributions’ extended cycles.
For organizations that have heavily invested in Ubuntu for servers, private clouds, or industrial environments, this move reinforces the idea that they can build long-term strategies around specific LTS releases, avoiding the need to overhaul their stacks every few years.
As AI, edge computing, and regulations put increased pressure on IT departments with less room for “experimentation” with system bases, offering 15 years of stable support is both a technical advantage and a strategic argument: it helps justify standardization on Ubuntu over other options.
Frequently Asked Questions about Ubuntu’s new 15-year support cycle
1. Does this mean all Ubuntu versions will have 15 years of support?
No. The extension applies to LTS releases (Long Term Support) that are covered by Ubuntu Pro and reach 10 years of support (standard + ESM). After that, the customer can activate the Legacy add-on to extend maintenance for another 5 years.
2. What’s the difference between ESM and the Ubuntu Pro Legacy add-on?
ESM (Expanded Security Maintenance) covers years 6 to 10 of an LTS with security patches for the base system and key components. The Legacy add-on extends this security maintenance from years 11 to 15, focusing on CVE fixes and stability, with an additional cost over the standard Ubuntu Pro subscription.
3. Do I need to reinstall or migrate my servers to benefit from Legacy support?
No. Canonical states that existing Ubuntu Pro subscriptions continue without changes, and enabling Legacy can be managed through your sales contact or account manager. No reinstallation or migration is required.
4. Is it worthwhile to opt for 15-year support if I’m already migrating to a newer version?
It depends. In environments where older systems are still in production, the 15-year support can serve as a “safety net” for extending the lifespan of certain nodes while completing migration projects. For newly deployed systems on current LTS, it guarantees those investments can remain operational and secure for over a decade.
via: ubuntu