Ubuntu LTS Releases Now Get 15 Years of Support

posted by Rianne Schestowitz on Nov 14, 2025,
updated Nov 16, 2025

Quoting: Ubuntu LTS Releases Now Get 15 Years of Support - OMG! Ubuntu —

All Ubuntu LTS releases receive 5 years of standard updates, critical fixes and security patches. A further 5 years of security coverage is available by enabling Ubuntu Pro, which businesses pay for but home users can use for free on up to 5 machines.

Last year Canonical announced the Legacy Add-On for Ubuntu Pro, an opt-in — and paid — extra that gives businesses, enterprises and hardware-dependent industries an additional 2 years of security coverage to their plans – for a price.

Now, the support period for the Legacy add-on is expanding to 5 years.

The change is available for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) from today, making Ubuntu 14.04 the longest-lived LTS to day, supported for a full 15 years since its release. Other Ubuntu LTS releases become eligible for the legacy add-on 10 years after release.

Read on

Linuxiac:

• Canonical Expands Ubuntu Pro Coverage, Bringing LTS Support to 15 Years

  Canonical has significantly expanded the scope of its enterprise offering by extending the Ubuntu Pro Legacy add-on, an extension to the Ubuntu Pro program that provides additional years of security maintenance after the standard LTS and ESM periods end, thereby extending the total lifecycle for Ubuntu LTS releases to 15 years.

  The change applies retroactively, starting with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), allowing businesses to keep using older Ubuntu LTS releases in production far beyond the usual lifecycle while still receiving critical security patches, compliance tooling, and optional support.

  This extension builds on Canonical’s earlier move in 2024, when the company introduced the Legacy add-on to increase Ubuntu LTS coverage from 10 to 12 years. The updated model now adds five years of additional security and compliance support, bringing the entire Ubuntu Pro lifecycle to a full decade and a half.

Original:

• Canonical expands total coverage for Ubuntu LTS releases to 15 years with Legacy add-on

More Update:

• Canonical extends Ubuntu LTS support again - if you pay

  Last year, Canonical increased its paid extended support lifespan to 12 years. Now, it's increasing it again, to 15 years ... for a price.

  Canonical's announcement puts the main news right into the title: Canonical expands total coverage for Ubuntu LTS releases to 15 years with Legacy add-on. This is an extended version of its existing Ubuntu Pro coverage.

  The announcement links back to the lifetime increase that the company announced in March 2024, when it increased its extended support period from a decade to 12 years – as we reported at the time.

  At the time, it meant that Ubuntu 14.04 got a life extension. Well, it just got another one: rather than croaking next year when 26.04 "Resolute Raccoon" debuts, now, Trusty Tahr will live on until 2029 – and from now on, every Ubuntu LTS will have the same lifespan.

• Ubuntu's New 15-Year Commitment Targets Long-Lived Enterprise Systems

  Ubuntu is Canonical's flagship Linux distribution that powers a significant portion of the information technology infrastructure today. It has two major versions: an interim release that comes with nine months of support and a long-term support release that comes with five years of standard support that is extensible via Ubuntu Pro.

  If you didn't know, Canonical introduced Ubuntu Pro in 2022 as a subscription service that extends LTS coverage beyond the standard five years. It includes Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM), which provides an additional five years of security patching, bringing the total coverage to 10 years for LTS releases.

  Similarly, back in 2024, Canonical launched the Legacy add-on for Ubuntu Pro, which initially provided two additional years of support beyond ESM, bringing total coverage to 12 years.

• Canonical extends Ubuntu LTS support to 15 years - Techzine Global

  According to a blog post by Canonical, this arrangement applies from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS onwards and is intended for long-term production environments where hardware dependency or strict compliance makes regular major upgrades problematic.

  Previously, the maintenance period for an LTS release consisted of five years of regular security updates followed by five years via the ESM (Expanded Security Maintenance) service. In 2024, the Legacy add-on was introduced, enabling two additional years of support, bringing the total to twelve years. Canonical has now announced that the additional period will be extended to five years, bringing the total to fifteen years.

• Canonical Boosts Ubuntu Long-Term Support Longevity with Five-Year Ubuntu Pro Legacy Expansion - Hackster.io

  Canonical has announced a lifeline for those with projects running end-of-life release of its popular Linux distribution: the extension of Ubuntu Pro Legacy, its extended maintenance offering, to 15 years of support.

  "In highly regulated or hardware-dependent industries, upgrades threaten to disrupt tightly controlled security and compliance. For many organizations, maintaining production systems for more than a decade is complex, but remains a more sensible option than a full upgrade," explains Canonical's Lidia Luna Puerta. "That's why, in 2024, we first introduced the Legacy add-on for Ubuntu Pro, starting with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr).

  "The Legacy add-on increased the total maintenance window for Ubuntu LTS releases to 12 years: five years of standard security maintenance, five years of Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM), and two years of additional coverage with the Legacy add-on. Due to the positive reception and growing interest in longer lifecycle coverage, we're excited to now extend the Legacy add-on to five years, bringing a 15-year security maintenance and support window to Ubuntu LTS releases."

TNS and Canonical on security/CISOs:

• Canonical Extends Ubuntu Linux Support for up to 15 Years

  Canonical’s Legacy add-on now extends support for all Ubuntu Long Term Support (LTS) releases, starting with 2014’s Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr), out to a full 15 years from their original release date. The enhanced support builds upon the standard five years of free maintenance, five years of Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) available via Ubuntu Pro, and introduces an additional five years through the premium Legacy add-on.

• A CISO’s preview of open source and cybersecurity trends in 2026 and beyond

  But where is open source going next? What’s in store for open source in the coming years, particularly in relation to security? Here’s my reflection on the state of open source, and the trends that I expect to have an impact going into 2026. 

UbuntuHandbook:

• Canonical Extended Ubuntu LTS Support to 15 Years | UbuntuHandbook

  Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, announced the expansion of the Legacy add-on for Ubuntu Pro few days ago. Along with the Standard and Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) support, the total coverage is expanded to 15 years.