For those of us who run our servers on the LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu, it seems like we’ve been waiting for quite some time for the new version that’s Bionic Beaver.

Version 16.04LTS of Ubuntu was released way back in April 2016.  Since then users of the non LTS version have got to play with 16.10, 17.04 and 17.10.  Of course looking after servers means you’re more interested in stability and support than the shiniest new functions.  Still, it’s nice to see the latest version touch down.

What’s new?

Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04LTS is packed with new features and changes.  Many of these debuted in the non LTS versions between 16.04 and 18.04.

Unity is gone – replaced by Gnome – though of course die-hard Linux administrators would never dream of using a GUI.  Not unless their server installations were running a remote desktop / XTerm type setup.

Another change is the lack of 32bit installer images.  Many Linux installs still run on 32bit kit but I, like Canonical think it’s time to move on (queue controversy).

Networking configurations have also changed since 16.04LTS.  Bionic Beaver is the first of the Long Term Support versions to support Netplan, first seen in 17.10.  Whilst it’s still possible to use the ifupdown  /etc/network/interfaces way of configuring the network you should take some time to learn the new way of doing things as sooner or later ifupdown may be depreciated out of existence.

Time To Upgrade?

Many system administrators favour a fresh install of the next LTS and a migration of applications from their older server installs.  Having seen the issues a straight upgrade can cause I too usually take this course of action.  The ability to spin up virtual machines as desired makes this kind of ‘upgrade’ easy and you can iron out any issues in testing.  Once happy you can make the new version live.

Indeed upgrading from 16.04LTS to 18.04LTS isn’t even possible with the normal “do-release-upgrade” without a little additional trick.  ‘Normal’ upgrades from 16.04LTS to 18.04LTS will only be possible on the release of 18.04.1LTS.  If you’ve chosen the LTS version for stability, waiting for .1 would seem to make sense anyway.

Download Available Now

Whether you’ve been holding off on a project waiting for 18.04LTS or you just want to take it for a spin, hop over to the Ubuntu site now and get your download.

One thing worth mentioning before you do – is that there are two versions of the server installer.  Subiquity is the new installer, but for server installs I’d recommended using the traditional installer.  It’s available in the alternative downloads section as it includes features such as LVM, Raid, advanced networking etc.