Are existing updates available after end of support? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate:
How to install software or upgrade from old unsupported release?

I am using Ubuntu 11.04 at the moment. I like GNOME 2 and its classic desktop environment. I would prefer to stay with it for as long as I can, even after it reaches EOL (end of life).

However, I am not fully satisfied with Natty and am considering downgrading to 10.10, which expires in April this year.

Suppose I install Ubuntu 10.10 after April, will the existing updates be available, or will Canonical kill off the repositories for 10.10 completely? Will the Software Centre still be functional then?

From memory, the repositories for end-of-life releases are moved within weeks of the EOL date.

To clarify - they are moved, not removed. EOL release repositories are available at http://old-releases.ubuntu.com

End-of-support means that Canonical will no longer actively push out updates and security patches. You will be responsible to do this yourself - probably through downloading sources yourself, compiling and installing.

As time goes by, though, you will find that the usual source of newer software - PPAs, will tend to dry up as the maintainers move onto newer versions of ubuntu.

Moving the repositories doesn't mean that you will be unable to install software - you will just need to repoint your sources to the old-releases area:

Edit /etc/apt/sources.list and change 'archive.ubuntu.com' to 'old-releases.ubuntu.com'

You can do this with sed

sudo sed -i -e 's/archive.ubuntu.com/old-releases.ubuntu.com/g' /etc/apt/sources.list

then update with

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Thus - synaptic/software-center etc will still work correctly.