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The chromium-browser Ubuntu 18.04 bionic-updates package lists not only the latest Chromium 103 (at the time of this writing) but also supports arm64 and armhf architectures. However, chromium-browser Ubuntu 22.04 focal-updates only contains a very old version of Chromium, 85.x

And by doing a package search, we can confirm only 18.04 contains the latest updates for Chromium:

Chromium browser package search

Additionally, the latest chromium-driver is only available on 18.04.

Ubuntu 18.04 is set to reach extended security maintenance in April 2023. Will chromium continue to be updated, or will the maintainer need to start publishing the updates in a more up to date repository? For instance, the Debian maintainers keep both Chromium and Firefox arm64/armhf up to date in Debian Sid.

And regarding Firefox on Ubuntu, the story is similar. by doing a package search for Firefox we see that the most up to date builds for the arm64/armhf architectures is only on bionic-updates. (Firefox is kept up to date for amd64 in other versions, but for arm architectures it is only up to date on bionic).

So the question is:

  • Why are these packages -- for arm architectures -- only up to date on Bionic?
  • Will they continue to be updated once Bionic transitions to the extended security maintenance in April 2023?
  • What is the thought process by only publishing these updates in the older LTS and not the two newer LTSs (20.04 and 22.04)?

I did find this answer, https://askubuntu.com/a/890625/8510, which somewhat helps understand the differences between the various repositories, but the information is from 2017 and not exactly up to date anymore.

UPDATE: Some of you suggested the answer to the question might be here, Why don't the Ubuntu repositories have the latest versions of software?, but this only talks about why software in general is not kept up to date. It does not explain why something is up to date on an older LTS version of Ubuntu but not any of several newer versions. If Chromium just plain wasn't up to date anywhere in the Ubuntu ecosphere, then the other question would have the answers.

Here's an outline of the State of Chromium (arm64/armhf) on Ubuntu versions:

  • Ubuntu 18.04 - Chromium v103 - up to date, LTS

  • Ubuntu 20.04 - Chromium v85 - Not up to date, LTS

  • Ubuntu 22.04 - Chromium v85 - Not up to date, LTS

References:

Hope this helps make the question more clear, which is why is Chromium arm64 only up to date on the older, more outdated Ubuntu?

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    Does this answer your question? Why don't the Ubuntu repositories have the latest versions of software?. The blog post on 16.04's transition to ESM is a good example of what ESM is, who it's for, and what it does and doesn't do.
    – Nmath
    Jul 29, 2022 at 3:12
  • I'd look at what occurred with 16.04/xenial when it went to ESM for examples; ie. the packages in repositories were no longer updated for some desktop packages; as ESM support was provided via snap packages only as as documented in a number of places, eg. wiki.ubuntu.com/SecurityTeam/ESM/16.04 (probably just another link to what @Nmath already provided with similar detail) Do note: ESM does not include all architectures; only those documented that it supports.
    – guiverc
    Jul 29, 2022 at 3:27
  • Why not use official Ubuntu documentation? eg. help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu for repository information.. That wiki doc is found at help.ubuntu.com (not wiki.ubuntu.com) so it should be up-to-date but you can always scan last edit & rather quickly get a feel for how accurate it is by looking version history & who is making edits (I'd also use the type of detail in the page for when I'd expect last change; repository being something that rarely changes anyway except for 3rd party/PPA which was last edit for that page anyway but this requires good knowledge)
    – guiverc
    Jul 29, 2022 at 3:34
  • feel free to remove all the end of life version. those will never ever get an update ;)
    – Rinzwind
    Jul 31, 2022 at 15:07
  • @Rinzwind I removed the EOL versions. The point I'm trying to highlight is that the oldest LTS seems to have the newest browser. I would think it would be the other way around that the newer LTS would get all the shiny new things.... For anyone that wants the Chromium versions for reference, for whatever reasons, it's here
    – jmort253
    Aug 1, 2022 at 9:47

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As of February 17th, 2023, Nathan Teodosio responded in the Ubuntu Launchpad Bug Report - Deb version numbering is misleading. Apparently, they stopped updating the transitional deb packages. Here is what Nathan has to say about this:

For Ubuntu >= Focal the transitional debs are frozen at the version number 1:85...

This might make one think[1] that it will install a critically outdated Chromium while it does not, because it installs the snap.

[1] https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chromium-browser/+question/702591

And in Answers Launchpad, Manfred Hampl explains that the deb package installs a snap, which then installs the latest Chromium browser:

The "chromium" deb packages for Ubuntu focal and newer are dummy-packages that do not contain the software, but install the snap version. So there is no need to provide updates for these, because update management is happening in the snap store. Ubuntu's deb package always installs the newest stable version available in the snap store.

In short, just because the package says Chromium 85 doesn't mean it will install Chromium 85. It will instead install the latest version.

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