Welcome to the Ubuntu Pro discourse! As the product manager for Ubuntu Pro, I am very excited to launch the public beta today and to open up this new forum for all our beta users to share their experience with this new service.
Ubuntu Pro has been several years in the making and is a big milestone for many teams at Canonical. We have always been committed to enhancing the security of open-source software and working closely with the community to achieve this goal.
What is Ubuntu Pro?
Ubuntu Pro is an additional layer of security and compliance services on top of an Ubuntu LTS. What’s really exciting is that it’s available to anyone free of charge for up to 5 machines. The Ubuntu LTS commitments are not changing. Ubuntu Pro expands the security coverage of an Ubuntu LTS to include packages from the Ubuntu Universe repository. It also extends the maintenance commitment to the full ten years since the LTS release.
What’s included?
Ubuntu Pro provides security coverage for critical, high and selected medium Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) to thousands of applications and toolchains, including Ansible, Apache Tomcat, Apache Zookeeper, Docker, Drupal, Nagios, Node.js, phpMyAdmin, Puppet, PowerDNS, Python 2, Redis, Rust, WordPress, and more.
Canonical backports security fixes from newer versions of applications, giving Ubuntu Pro users a path to long-term security with no forced upgrades. The result is a decade of API stability.
Which Ubuntu LTS releases are covered?
Ubuntu Pro is available for every Ubuntu LTS from 16.04 LTS for servers and workstations. It is already in production for large-scale customers offering global services.
Currently, all security patches for the Ubuntu Universe repository are offered under public beta. No Ubuntu Security Notices (USNs) are being provided for them before Ubuntu Pro moves from public beta to general availability.
What are the compliance and hardening features?
For enhanced compliance and hardening, Ubuntu Pro users can access FIPS 140-2 certified cryptographic packages, necessary for all Federal Government agencies as well as organisations operating under compliance regimes like FedRAMP, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. Ubuntu Security Guide (USG) enables well-known hardening and compliance standards such as certified CIS benchmark tooling and DISA-STIG profiles. System management at scale is facilitated through Landscape.
Want to try it out and share your feedback?
Ubuntu Pro was built thanks to our collaboration with our enterprise customers and partners. Today, we are making all of it available to the whole Ubuntu community. We would love to hear about your experience with Ubuntu Pro to help drive our roadmap. Try the beta and us know what else you would like to see included with Ubuntu Pro.
For additional information: