Now you can deploy a RunCloud server running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (code named “Bionic Beaver”). It is the most recent Long Term Support (LTS) version that was released on April 26th, 2018.
What is LTS?
Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) versions are released every 2 years and are guaranteed to receive support for at least 5 years after release.
The previous LTS version, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, will stop receiving updates after April 2021. Ubuntu 18.04 LTS will receive security fixes and critical updates until April 2023.
The continuous updates of LTS versions provide a stable platform for your production applications. You can check out the Ubuntu release lifecycle at Ubuntu release end of life
What’s new for RunCloud server with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS?
Generally, an Ubuntu LTS contains only a few major changes for a server. You can refer to the Ubuntu 18.04 LTS release notes for new features.
Linux kernel 4.15
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS server’s Linux kernel has been updated to version 4.15. The new kernel version supports the latest hardware and peripherals from IBM, Intel, and others. It also includes patches to mitigate the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities, and filesystem bug fixes, performance improvements, and support for very large amounts of memory.
No more PHP 5
A RunCloud server running on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS no longer supports PHP 5.x (5.5 and 5.6), and only supports PHP 7.0 and later (7.1, 7.2). If you haven’t upgraded already, there is no better time to migrate your web application to PHP 7 from PHP 5.x.
PHP 5.5 has officially been end-of-life and not been supported at all (not even receiving security fixes) since 2016. As the final PHP 5 release, PHP 5.6 support has been extended for an additional 4 months until the end of 2018.
PHP 7.1 and 7.2 are now the only two current PHP versions receiving active support. PHP 7.2 will receive security fixes until the end of 2020.
The longer support period is not the only reason to switch up PHP version, as has been widely reported, PHP 7.x also has far superior performance than PHP 5.x.
Kinsta PHP benchmark tests show that WordPress with PHP 7.2 can handle almost 3x more requests per second than WordPress with PHP 5.6. PHP 7.2 is also the top performance in 14 out of 20 platforms/configurations performance tests.
Conclusion
RunCloud customers can now deploy servers with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. All web applications will work seamlessly as long as they support PHP 7. Older web applications that still require PHP 5 can continue to be deployed on RunCloud servers using Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
