Canonical releases Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS

The Ubuntu developers have announced the availability of Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, the fourth maintenance update to the Long Term Support (LTS) version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, first released at the end of April 2008. The maintenance release of "Hardy Heron" includes 77 updates, covering several bugs, security issues and errors in the installation system. These issues include, Nautilus not displaying Samba shares for certain networks, specific hardware fixes for Dell computers and GRUB installation failures on certain non-Ext3 file systems.

The LTS updates focus on improving stability and compatibility. Ubuntu 8.04.4 includes all of the security updates affecting 8.04 LTS that were released up to and including January 20, 2010. Users who already run Ubuntu 8.04 will have recieved all these updates through online updating; the 8.04.4 release provides an updated version of the LTS release for users who are installing new systems.

The LTS versions of Ubuntu are supported for three years for the desktop releases and five years for server releases. The standard releases are supported for 18 months of updates for both the desktop and server versions. Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS will continue to receive maintenance updates and security fixes until April 2011 on desktops and April 2013 on servers.

More details about the release can be found in the release notes and change summary. Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS is available to download for 32 and 64-bit systems. The latest stable release of Ubuntu is version 9.10, code named "Karmic Koala", initially released in October 2009. The next LTS release, 10.04 "Lucid Lynx", is scheduled to be released on the 29th of April, 2010.

See also:

• Canonical releases Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Alpha 2, a report from The H.
• What's new in Ubuntu 9.10, a feature from The H.
• Ubuntu 8.04 – a first look, a feature from The H.

(crve)