Reminder: Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish will reach EOL on Thursday

Earlier this month, Canonical announced that Ubuntu 18.10 Cosmic Cuttlefish will complete its lifecycle on Thursday, and for users, it is now an ideal time to upgrade to a higher version. As with all non-long-term support (LTS) versions, 18.10 was supported for up to nine months after its release in October last year. When a distribution reaches its end of life phase, they will no longer receive security updates.

As a result, the longer you run an unpatched system, the more likely your system is to be compromised, putting data at risk. Users who need to upgrade can perform version updates or download images for a new installation of Ubuntu.

Upgrading Ubuntu is relatively straightforward. You can find detailed instructions on the Ubuntu help page, but usually, just install any available updates and press the upgrade button that appears in the Software Updater tool. Normally, the system should work properly after the upgrade, but it is still recommended that you back up important information to an external drive first.

The latest version of Ubuntu is Ubuntu 19.04 Disco Dingo, which includes a new version of the GNOME desktop and an updated kernel.