Hello Linux Geeksters. Due to the fact that Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr will be a LTS (long term supported) release, Canonical is not pleased with the fact that Ubuntu GNOME will provide updates for Ubuntu 14.04 GNOME only for two years an three months, getting out of support in the month when Ubuntu 16.04.1 is scheduled for release.
After some talks between Canonical and the GNOME developers, Ubuntu GNOME 14.04 has received three years of support, like the other official Ubuntu flavors.
This is how Steve Langasek explained the necessity of extend support for Ubuntu 14.04 GNOME, in the mailing lists:
“I am very concerned about this proposed support timeline. 2 years and 3 months means that the support period would end the same month that 16.04.1 is likely to be released. Given that our policy has been to not recommend (or advertise in the UI) LTS upgrades until the first point release, this effectively gives users zero margin between the dropping of security support for Ubuntu-GNOME 14.04, and the first upgrades to Ubuntu-GNOME 16.04,”
As a reminder, Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr will be using GNOME 3.10 and not GNOME 3.12, which will be released this March, in order to provide a more stable environment, since Canonical had enough time to perform tests on GNOME 3.10.