http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/17489/
Severity: wishlist
Related to: Bug #1, update-manager, ubuntu documentation

Description:
Supposedly a release reaches its End-of-Life (EoL). In that case repositories simply disappear, just as they have with 7.04 Feisty, see: http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/feisty/
The old releases archives and installation files are transferred to http://old-releases.ubuntu.com
Yet, a simple user, that has just installed the world of Internet. They have installed an Ubuntu release before and were using it offline, and the release is not supported anymore.
The update-manager prompts the user with the choice to upgrade to a newer release and, due to these changes, they can't.

Scenario:
- A granny has been using a computer with Ubuntu installed.
- The same granny recently decided to get connected to the internet, but she was using an Ubuntu distribution that has reached its EoL.
- She connects to the internet, says "OK, let's see some Internet-related applications".
- She discovers System > Administration > Update Manager. "Oh let's try it and see if there's anything new of games for my grandchildren"
- She checks for updates and notices the new release upgrade. "A new version of Ubuntu, how nice, let's download it then!"
- She can't upgrade because the repository or repositories are missing and cannot be found. The notification for new release upgrade is still available though. "Oh great, now what do I do?"

Problem:
This gives out a broken upgrade plan to the user who gets confused.
A normal desktop user does not read mailing lists or could be completely tech-agnostic, a person that doesn't know how to connect to the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and find a solution to their problems. I realise that these releases are unsupported and "are supposed to be broken" as many of you think - I'm *not* asking to support with security updates nor to provide new packages for old releases.

Tested and reproduced on:
Ubuntu 6.10 edgy (upgrade to 7.10 through update-manager)
Ubuntu 7.04 feisty (upgrade to 7.10 through update-manager)
Ubuntu 7.04 feisty (upgrade to 7.10 with alternate CD)

Note:
Upgrades with alternate CD *work* if you choose "No" to the question "Include latest updates from the Internet".
This step could be included in the documentation.

Expectations:
I simply wish that the users, who eventually end up using the internet on an old unsupported release, get notified about that. They should be given *at least* a link which they could simply click to find out more information.

[125 votes] Solution #1: Update manager - show EoL status with link to upgrades help documentation


]]> en-us Tue, 20 Jan 2009 10:08:15 +0000 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:45:20 +0000 QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/17489/ I don't like all this let's get a computer for my granny and install Ubuntu on it. I think that's "torture". Poor granny doesn't know how to use computer let alone knows how to repair X server when it gets broken due to updates...

I get what your trying to say, but I just can't imagine that.
I personally like to be on a bleeding edge and I believe that most users do the same.
But still +1, for those that might be more conservative...]]> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:54:17 +0000 Would you rather prefer an example with a 12-year-old child? Either way, I wanted to point an extreme case, where common people aren't so "techie".

And my server wasn't broken, I tried upgrading from old releases using the alternate CD and everything was ok. Plus, nowadays exists "bullet proof X" or something like that, which makes it much more stable to fall to safe-mode settings and still get your desktop back.]]> Tue, 20 Jan 2009 18:44:46 +0000 Thu, 05 Feb 2009 15:55:34 +0000 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/update-manager/+bug/319146

mvo (Michael Vogt) said that update-manager has already the background support for end-of-life messages, we'll see how it goes.

Feel free to comment there! :)]]> Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:12:08 +0000
medigeek,

I understand exactly what you are suggesting. And it is exactly what I've been questioning in the Ubuntu forums as to whether this feature exists.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1394262

This is a very important idea to add to Ubuntu.

Primoz,
You've missed the whole point. Do you think it would be any less torture to put a non-computer literate granny on a Windows desktop OS? I think that would be way worse. Which is exactly the reason I'm in the process of trying to convert the friends and family I support to Ubuntu. As most of these people are unable to update and maintain their Windows OS and apps. It's far to complicated compared to Ubuntu Linux. And end up leaving themselves far more open to software exploits by not having a constantly updated OS and apps.

I think you have made a poor judgment by grouping everyone into what you like to do. I personally do not like bleeding edge, as I want a stable OS and apps that I do not have to constantly trawl the Ubuntu forums for fixes. Does that mean that everyone does as I do? No, of course not. Ubuntu is supposed to be an easy distribution to use. Not arcane and obfuscated.


]]> Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:45:20 +0000