Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) Will Reach End of Life on January 20th, 2022

Ubuntu 21.04 End of Life

Canonical announced that their Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) release will reach end of life next month on January 20th, 2022, urging users to upgrade to the latest Ubuntu release.

Dubbed “Hirsute Hippo”, Ubuntu 21.04 was released less than eight months ago, on April 22nd, 2021, the first Ubuntu release to switch to the next-generation Wayland display server by default.

Powered by Linux kernel 5.11 and built around the GNOME 3.38 desktop environment series (with support for GNOME 40 apps), Ubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) also introduced PipeWire support, nftables as the default firewall backend, support for smart card authentication, and a redesigned Yaru dark theme.

But, not being a long-term support (LTS) release, Ubuntu 21.04 only receives software and security updates for nine months, which means that it will reach end of life on January 20th, 2022. At that time, Canonical will stop offering updates for the Hirsute Hippo release.

“Ubuntu 21.04 will reach end of life on January 20, 2022. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 21.04,” said Brian Murray.

After January 20th, 2022, Ubuntu 21.04 will become vulnerable to all sorts of threats, so it is highly recommended that you consider upgrading until then to the latest Ubuntu release, in this case Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish Indri).

Ubuntu 21.10 comes with a much newer kernel, namely Linux 5.13, full support for the GNOME 40 desktop environment series, Firefox as a Snap, support for the NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver on the Wayland session, and other improvements.

Therefore, you have about one and a half months, from the moment of writing this article, to upgrade your Ubuntu 21.04 installations to Ubuntu 21.10, which will be supported until the end of June 2022.

On April 21st, 2022, Canonical will release Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) as the next LTS (Long-Term Support) series of the popular GNU/Linux distribution, which will be supported for at least 5 years.

Last updated 2 years ago

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