[tor-project] (FWD) [tor-relays] Ubuntu LTS about to ship with a soon-to-expire Tor version?

[Roger Dingledine]

FYI, if you know any good Ubuntu contacts, or you are one: Ubuntu is
about to release a long-term-stable with a version of Tor that will soon
become obsolete.

If you have any useful progress to make here, please make it on the
ticket:
https://trac.torproject.org/25715

Thanks!
--Roger

----- Forwarded message from Roger Dingledine <arma at mit.edu> -----

Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2018 22:07:36 -0400
From: Roger Dingledine <arma at mit.edu>
To: tor-relays at lists.torproject.org
Subject: [tor-relays] Ubuntu LTS about to ship with a soon-to-expire Tor version?

Do we have any good Ubuntu contacts here?

I noticed today that Ubuntu Bionic LTS will come out this month:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases
and they are currently on track to include Tor 0.3.2.10:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/bionic/+source/tor
which is scheduled to go end-of-life before the end of 2018:
https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/teams/NetworkTeam/CoreTorReleases#Listofreleases

So we are on track for 4.5 years of sadness for Ubuntu users -- and
since some of the most critical users of the Tor deb on Ubuntu are relay
operators, this seems like a good time to try to rescue things.

The best fixes I've thought of are to either:

(A) Convince them to downgrade to Tor 0.2.9, which we will maintain for
another few years.

(B) Make a deal with them where they know that 0.3.2 will be abandoned
soon, and that they'll move to our next LTS once it comes out.

In the past we tried something like 'B' and it did not go smoothly. So
I'm inclined to think 'A' is the better plan.

See also this trac ticket where I'll aim to keep track of our progress:
https://trac.torproject.org/25715

I'm also going to forward this note to tor-project@ in case there are
better Ubuntu contacts there.

Never a dull moment,
--Roger

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----- End forwarded message -----