Ubuntu Studio's Website Information

Flavors & Remixes Ubuntu Studio
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EDIT: The website is back.

Dear Ubuntu Studio users and prospective users,

Over the past few months, Ubuntu Studio has been in the process of migrating from Canonical’s servers to a new host with a deadline of today. It took some time to come up with the proper host as we wanted a 1:1 solution. We eventually found that solution, and three weeks ago started the migration process.

However, after multiple delays on Canonical’s end getting us what we needed to start the migration, which we only got yesterday, the website was shut-off today, which was the initial deadline Canonical’s Information Services (IS) team gave us to have the migration complete initially, but said they would extend due to the delays. Apparently that was not the case.

From our end, IS has been deprioritizing community efforts and has been hindered by certain decisions, and now Ubuntu Studio has fallen victim to bad decisions that have left us homeless. We are in the process of asking Canonical to turn the server back on for a few days while migration work, which was underway, restarts.

Furthermore, IS refuses to communicate directly with anyone on the Ubuntu Studio team, among other teams. We have sent ticket after ticket, and the only way we can get communication through is by going through the Canonical Community Team. This makes it feel like anything we do is met with hostility and futility because we are unable to do anything from our end.

With that, we hope you find patience and understanding as we try to get this situation sorted. We’re not happy about it, but please, understand the blame here isn’t on the Ubuntu Studio team.

EDIT: To clarify, it doesn’t affect .iso images, package repositories, or anything like that. Ubuntu Studio isn’t a separate distribution, after all.

EDIT2: The initial deadline was in December, which gave us (and other flavors) not enough time, so it was extended to end of March.

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I hope any communication SNAFUs get ironed out and things go back to normal, with the website properly restored.

In any case, a few day’s downtime wouldn’t be a problem with the website itself, but if this also affects package repositories, then that would certainly be problematic.

I seem to have missed out on some context here. Why is Ubuntu Studio moving servers? Are all Ubuntu flavours asked to migrate from Canonical’s servers, or is it only the case of Ubuntu Studio?

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To clarify, it doesn’t affect .iso images, package repositories, or anything like that. Ubuntu Studio isn’t a separate distribution, after all

Ubuntu Studio was the last of the original flavors (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, and Ubuntu Studio) whose websites were still be hosted by Canonical. Canonical warned they were shutting down the servers.

Edubuntu’s website was taken off first after they lost flavor status, but then when it was brought back, Canonical refused to reinstate the web server; the current website was only meant to be temporary.

Kubuntu and Xubuntu had the manpower to move to static sites, so they did recently.

Ubuntu Studio doesn’t have that manpower and was in the process of moving to a 1:1 solution.

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Ah, okay. This clears things up for me. So it’s Canonical’s policy.

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Well, an unwritten one, but they certainly hosted the sites for nearly two decades.

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It all sounds quite frustrating. A big thank you @eeickmeyer Erich for your dedicated efforts on (all of) our behalf.

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