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Ukuu, or Ubuntu Kernel Update Utility, a fairly popular unofficial GUI tool for easily installing the latest mainline Linux kernel on Ubuntu-based distributions, has moved to a paid ($11) licensing model with its latest 19.01 release.
Ukuu displays the list of kernels available in the Ubuntu Mainline kernel website, allowing users to easily download and install the desired version. The utility can also remove installed kernels, display the changes in the selected Linux version, display notifications when new kernels are available, and so on.
With the 19.01 release of Ukuu, the application requires a personal license which costs $11, and the source code is no longer available. Tony George, the application developer, notes the reason for this being the lack of donations, with alternatives being stopping the development or requiring a paid license:
"The last version of this app (v18.9) had 60,000 downloads, yet only 12 users have donated over the last 2 years. It was not possible for me to continue working on this application for free, and making it paid seemed like a better alternative than discontinuing the project."
https://www.linuxuprising.com/2019/01/ubuntu-kernel-update-utility-ukuu-moves.html
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Saturday February 09 2019, @06:53PM (1 child)
That is a concern. Some years ago, someone came out with an on-line kernel updater. It was cool, I played with it through several updates. Nice. Then, the developer closed it up, and offered only a paid subscription. I lost interest. Not that I couldn't afford it, but if more and more applications or whatever go that route, Linux may soon become more expensive to run than Apple or Microsoft. I appreciated the opportunity to play with the application, but when it became a paid service, I bailed.
Had to look it up - think it was Ksplice. Looks like Oracle bought them out - https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E37670_01/E37355/html/admin-ksplice-overview.html [oracle.com]
Or, maybe it was a different application. Oracle's description looks very much like what I was using, but it doesn't seem quite "right".
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 09 2019, @09:26PM
There are a couple of online kernel updaters, the biggest being ksplice, kGraft, and kpatch. All three were free when initially made, but eventually closed shop. There are lesser ones now in KernelCare and Ubuntu's livepatch service. A formal solution was eventually mainlined into the kernel, and many of the mechanisms (free and paid) now just wrap that interface.
One thing to note about live patching the kernel or kexec: Those are not replacements for rebooting the system, only delaying it. Each live-patched function or time you kexec to a new kernel, it introduces a performance hit and leaves the whole thing in an interesting state. So please people, remember to reboot your machine during some downtime.