Canonical Announces Ubuntu Pro For Devices

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Canonical Announces Ubuntu Pro For Devices

Complementing Canonical's existing Ubuntu Pro subscription service for expanded security maintenance, live kernel patching, compliance and hardening, real-time kernel flavor support, and other enterprise/support add-ons, Canonical today announced Ubuntu Pro For Devices...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Ubuntu-Pro-For-Devices

[xAlt7x]

Ubuntu Pro for Devices provides 10 years of security maintenance for Ubuntu and thousands of open source packages, such as Python, Docker, OpenJDK, OpenCV, MQTT, OpenSSL, Go, and Robot Operating System (ROS).

Let's check whether these are "community packages with best-effort support" (uploaded to the "Universe" repo)...
Well, many of them are (python3.11 (not python3.12 though), docker, opencv, node-mqtt).
That means that outside of "Ubuntu Pro", these packages may stop receiving security updates many months before the end of the normal LTS Universe support period (3 years). Some Ubuntu 22.04 "universe" packages (e.g., imagemagick, node-jquery-ui, openexr, libexo) have been affected by such questionable maintenance practices.

[ezst036]

I wish Ubuntu/Canonical as an organization would work its way back toward UBports for cellphones. That sort of a boost would do a lot of good.

[szymon_g]

Good.

[Vistaus]

I wish Ubuntu/Canonical as an organization would work its way back toward UBports for cellphones. That sort of a boost would do a lot of good.

That's already the case. In the latest newsletter, it was announced that Canonical worked with UBports on improved Snap support and Canonical also explained how to properly build snaps for Ubuntu Touch.

But I do agree that more of a boost would be welcome.

[uid313]

Maybe they should have Ubuntu Pro for Raspberry Pi?
Maybe that would be a good partnership.

[johnandmegh]

Let's check whether these are "community packages with best-effort support" (uploaded to the "Universe" repo)...

Time will tell about the effectiveness of this, but "Best effort" for Universe doesn't apply to Pro, just to standard LTS: https://ubuntu.com/security/esm The commitment for Pro is 10 years including Universe as well.

[xAlt7x]

"Best effort" for Universe doesn't apply to Pro, just to standard LTS: https://ubuntu.com/security/esm The commitment for Pro is 10 years including Universe as well.

My point is that regular Ubuntu LTS (without Ubuntu Pro subscription) doesn't fit business and security-concerned people, unless they can/want to avoid vulnerable packages from Universe repo or choose to patch them.