[Solved] End of life notification

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cliffcoggin
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[Solved] End of life notification

Post by cliffcoggin »

I have no plans to change from Mint 18.3 until support ends in a few years time. Naturally I shall want to prepare for a change a month or two in advance of that date, however my memory is not what it was. Will I be notified of the approaching end, or will there just be an absence of updates?
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kc1di
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Re: End of life notification

Post by kc1di »

Hi Cliff,
here's the page Clem put out about EOL for different versions. I would plan accordingly as there is no guarantee that there will be future announcements about it.
https://endoflife.software/operating-sy ... linux-mint
Though it's possible there will be a forum or blog announcement at the time.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by karlchen »

cliffcoggin wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:11 amWill I be notified of the approaching end, or will there just be an absence of updates?
Unless such a feature should be implemented in future, the answer is: your operating system will not notify you once it has passed the end of its supported life. The software repositories will simply offer no more software updates, because the developers will have stopped maintaining Mint 18.x.

kc1di gave you the address of a webpage, where you can look up the scheduled ends of supported lives for all currently existing Mint releases.
You can also find the same information on the Linux Mint homepage; to be precise on the Linux Mint download page: Linux Mint Releases
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cliffcoggin
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Re: End of life notification

Post by cliffcoggin »

Thank you gents. I'll have to get an alarm clock with a very long lasting battery.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by Schultz »

cliffcoggin wrote:
Thank you gents. I'll have to get an alarm clock with a very long lasting battery.
Now that's funny. :lol:
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Re: End of life notification

Post by lsemmens »

Planning for EOL of an OS is not a major issue, It won't suddenly stop working on that day. You can then upgrade if you feel the need at any time. People are still happily using Windows XP which has, supposedly, died years ago.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by cliffcoggin »

lsemmens wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 10:00 pm Planning for EOL of an OS is not a major issue, It won't suddenly stop working on that day. You can then upgrade if you feel the need at any time. People are still happily using Windows XP which has, supposedly, died years ago.
Planning for EOL is not the issue; remembering the date is.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by chiefjim »

cliffcoggin wrote: Mon Dec 17, 2018 7:51 am
Planning for EOL is not the issue; remembering the date is.
Perfect use for a planning calendar
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Re: End of life notification

Post by gm10 »

What's everybody saying? Of course you'll get a notification. Once Ubuntu shuts down the repositories your Update Manager will throw a big complaint at you. That's how you'll know you've overstayed your welcome. :mrgreen:
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Re: End of life notification

Post by cliffcoggin »

gm10 wrote: Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:36 am What's everybody saying? Of course you'll get a notification. Once Ubuntu shuts down the repositories your Update Manager will throw a big complaint at you. That's how you'll know you've overstayed your welcome. :mrgreen:
That's a relief. I can now forget about it until 2021.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by gm10 »

cliffcoggin wrote: Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:57 pm That's a relief. I can now forget about it until 2021.
Personally I'd suggest to update early rather than late. Only parts of the software repository are supported for the full 5 years, so if that is a consideration for you rather consider upgrading after 2 instead of 5 years.

That said, we could probably add a proper End of Life notification to Update Manager, although you won't benefit from it on LM18. I'll make a note of it.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by cliffcoggin »

Personally I'd suggest to update early rather than late. Only parts of the software repository are supported for the full 5 years, so if that is a consideration for you rather consider upgrading after 2 instead of 5 years.

That said, we could probably add a proper End of Life notification to Update Manager, although you won't benefit from it on LM18. I'll make a note of it.
A notification would be helpful, thanks.

Is it known now which specific parts of the software will not get 5 year support, or is it more a matter of gradual attrition and decay on a random basis?
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Re: End of life notification

Post by gm10 »

cliffcoggin wrote: Mon Dec 17, 2018 8:13 pm Is it known now which specific parts of the software will not get 5 year support, or is it more a matter of gradual attrition and decay on a random basis?
Both really. Ubuntu only supports the main and restricted pockets from their repository, but those for the full duration (in Synaptic Package Manager these packages are marked with an Ubuntu or Debian logo, depending on your desktop theme). The rest of the package base is considered "community maintained" and you can flip a coin whether it gets updates or not, and typically the enthusiasm wanes the older the release gets because people move on to the next one. That sort of also goes for Mint's self-maintained packages, back-ported bug fixes for a previous release are rare (other than for the browser).
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Re: End of life notification

Post by AZgl1800 »

kc1di wrote: Sun Dec 16, 2018 8:40 am Hi Cliff,
here's the page Clem put out about EOL for different versions. I would plan accordingly as there is no guarantee that there will be future announcements about it.
https://endoflife.software/operating-sy ... linux-mint
Though it's possible there will be a forum or blog announcement at the time.
My Experience has been, that there is ALWAYS someone on the forum that starts talking about it around 4 to 6 months before DoomsDay for that version.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by all41 »

+1 on updating early.
imho the holy grail in this situation would be a second hd to install and test the updated versions while
keeping your present go-to system separate and unaffected.
There are ssd drives to be had for <25 usd--such as:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss ... ds=pny+120
these are only 120 gb but perfect for this purpose, especially if you have mass storage on other drives.
I have a couple of these--they work nicely.
You can start with Mint 19.1 and follow the releases as they unfold before making a decision--who knows, this may happen sooner than you are predicting.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by cliffcoggin »

Thank you folks. If I have to change the OS before 2021 because something doesn't work, so be it; otherwise I'll wait until near the end.
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Re: End of life notification

Post by MtnDewManiac »

gm10 wrote: Mon Dec 17, 2018 4:17 pmThat said, we could probably add a proper End of Life notification to Update Manager, although you won't benefit from it on LM18. I'll make a note of it.
That would probably be a good idea. Yes, the onus is on the customer here and, YES, the official end of support date is published when (before, actually, I think?) the distro version is released. But people do forget things, it is probably reasonable to assume that not everyone who installs/uses Mint visits this forum on a regular (or even sporadic) basis and, perhaps most relevant... not everyone who uses Mint is going to be the person who actually installed it (I'm thinking of older parents here, but it's a general statement), and the person who did install it may not be tracking things for that user on an extended basis.

I'm not stating that you should devote valuable - and limited! - development time to such a feature; only that, IMHO, it would be a nice thing to do. One of those things that may not help a great many people, but would provide some significant value (at least theoretically) to that subset of Mint's users who it would help.

The list of "nice things to do that one really doesn't have time for" is probably approximately (∞ - 1) in length, though :wink: .

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Re: End of life notification

Post by gm10 »

MtnDewManiac wrote: Mon Dec 31, 2018 2:29 am The list of "nice things to do that one really doesn't have time for" is probably approximately (∞ - 1) in length, though :wink: .
You know it. If at least I could have some fun with it, like turning Update Manager into a flaming skull with dark organ music when "end of life" is reached. :lol:
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Re: [Solved] End of life notification

Post by AZgl1800 »

gm10 wrote: ⤴
Mon Dec 17, 2018 2:17 pm
That said, we could probably add a proper End of Life notification to Update Manager, although you won't benefit from it on LM18. I'll make a note of it.
It just occurred to me, that I could add a Google Calendar notification for the appropriate date for me that 18.3 Cinnamon is no longer being updated, and End of Life.

But, the forum is going to be totally alive with folks asking at that time anyway.
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Re: [Solved] End of life notification

Post by gm10 »

FYI: https://github.com/linuxmint/mintupdate/pull/459

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(this is just a pull request, it may or may not get released in that form)
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