During the OpenStack Summit in Berlin, Canonical and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth mentioned that support for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will extend from 5 to 10 years.
“I am proud to announce that Ubuntu 18.04 will have support for 10 Years. This is because many industries such as finance, telecommunications and the Internet of things are launching systems that will last for at least a decade. " He mentioned Shuttleworth in his Keynote.
While Ubuntu users receive all the updates and news, most of Canonical's capital goes to server and cloud service clients. For these corporate users, Canonical extended support for Ubuntu 12.04, then did the same for Ubuntu 14.04, and now Ubuntu 18.04. Furthermore, Shuttleworth mentioned that Ubuntu 16.04, which will reach the end of its cycle in April 2021, will also extend its support.
Shuttleworth also mentioned in the keynote that Red Hat's Canonical customers have been going the Ubuntu path, not to replace it, but to expand its technology in areas such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.
Although Shuttleworth does predict that the purchase of Red Hat by IBM if it could lead to users changing systems, mentioning that they have the advantage that they are neutral in the public cloud.
He says Canonical is Red Hat's only real competitor when it comes to Linux cloud spaces, though he thinks SUSE is close as well.
Ubuntu is not for sale ... yet
Finally, Shuttleworth mentioned that he has no plans to sell Ubuntu in the near future, although he said ambiguously that if they offer him a giant offer and if they let him stay as head of Canonical to continue fulfilling his vision.