Ubuntu 13.10 should be upgraded to LTS status

[Dimitri John Ledkov]

Hello Mark and ubuntu-devel,

On 29 October 2013 15:56, Mark Rogers <mark at more-solutions.co.uk> wrote:
> [Moved here from bug 1245870]
>

I've marked the bug "won't fix" and set assignee to Ubuntu Release
Team, as common release decisions are delegated to that team by the
Ubuntu Technical Committee.

This is not the first time when Windows XP EOL date has been brought
up to the attention of the Ubuntu Project community. It has been done
in a more timely fashion at previous vUDS ahead of 13.10 release and
when the 14.04 LTS preliminary schedules were discussed and drafted.
At this time 13.10 has already released and is frozen, and the 14.04
LTS is mostly set in stone as well (sans minor wiggle room here and
there).

All the previous discussions and points raised did not convince Ubuntu
Release Team that allusive Windows XP EOL should be in any way
considered. Here is a summary of counter-arguments which I have also
posted on the bug report:

For the record:

"""
* By default on the www.ubuntu.com website we promote Ubuntu LTS
release for download, which has 5 years of support on the Desktop.

* Windows XP expire date has been raised before. That sofware has been
obsolete for a long time. Users of that software, have already been
ignoring the upgrade warnings, thus it's not expected for them to be
upgrade savvy. We are confident that 12.04 LTS is a great improvement
to Windows XP users, which will be supported for 3 years after XP EOL.
Furthermore, some of the hardware typically supported by Windows XP
machines (i386, non-PAE) are only supported with 12.04 LTS. Do note
that 13.10 defaults to 64-bit images (amd64).

* Technically, it might be non-trivial to change support life cycle of
a given release, since support status of packages is published in the
archive metadata, which is GPG signed and is frozen at release and not
changed. (as in "raring" suit never changes, "raring-*" do change
throughout the support lifetime of a realease to provide security and
bugfix updates).

For similar reasons, we also rejected the idea to shifting 14.04 LTS
release dates, based around Windows XP expiry dates.

Also note, this is not the first time "Windows XP" was declared EOL,
the dates have been pushed back before by Microsoft and it may happen
again.
"""

Of course, Windows XP EOL is a good strategic timing for Ubuntu
advocacy and targeted marketing. And Ubuntu 12.04 LTS i386 CD-ROMS /
ISOs or any other official flavors are an excellent product for
promotion to, still existing, Windows XP users. [*]

[*] do note that majority of Windows XP installations were 32-bit and
booted of CD-ROMS instead of USB (as is more common these days)

ps. probably something better than posters of "Revive your computer
back to life with [L|X|K|Edu]Ubuntu or others"

-- 
Regards,

Dimitri.