“The Ubuntu Server study comes at an opportune time as the next
major release of Ubuntu codenamed the Lucid Lynx is scheduled for
release at the end of April. The Lucid release is a major one for
Ubuntu as it is the first Long Term Support (LTS) release in two
years.“Typical Ubuntu releases come out every six months and have 18
months of support. Ubuntu LTS releases, however, come out every two
years and provide three years of support on Ubuntu Desktop, and
five years on Ubuntu Server. The last Ubuntu LTS release was the
8.04 release, codenamed the Hardy Heron which made its debut in
April 2008.“The new Ubuntu Server study done by Canonical, received
responses from 2,650 people and shows the relative importance of an
LTS release over a regular non-LTS release. The study found that
there were more users of the 8.04 LTS release than there were for
the more recent 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10 releases. The most recent
Ubuntu 9.10 release, codenamed the Karmic Koala.”