Canonical has announced the general availability of Ubuntu Pro, a security subscription service for the popular Linux distro.
Ubuntu is the most widely-used Linux distro, providing excellent hardware support and ease of use. Canonical releases interim releases every six months, with LTS (long-term support) releases every two years. LTS releases offer five years of support and security patches.
The new Ubuntu Pro subscription extends LTS support to a full ten years while also improving security. In particular, Ubuntu Pro adds security patch support for the 23,000 packages in the Ubuntu Universe repo, outside of the 2,300 packages in the Ubuntu Main repo.
Ubuntu Pro, Canonical’s comprehensive subscription for secure open source and compliance, is now generally available. Ubuntu Pro, released in beta in October last year, helps teams get timely CVE patches, harden their systems at scale and remain compliant with regimes such as FedRAMP, HIPAA and PCI-DSS.
The new plan also features optional phone/ticket support.
“I manage my own compute cluster leveraging MAAS and other Canonical tools to support my research. The open source security patches delivered through Ubuntu Pro give my team peace of mind, and ensure my servers are secure. Canonical is continuously delivering timely CVE patches covering a broad portfolio of open source applications for the entire ten-year lifetime of an Ubuntu LTS. This brings much needed stability and compliance”, said David A Gutman, MD PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology, Emory University School of Medicine.
The subscription is available for free to personal and small-scale commercial users for up to five machines. The standard subscription is available for $25 per workstation per year or $500 per server per year.