Canonical Ends Bazaar Hosting on Launchpad

Bazaar, created by Martin Pool and sponsored by Canonical, never matched Git in popularity. With its last stable release in 2016, it gradually lost traction among open‑source communities. Today, Git has become the standard, hosting the vast majority of collaborative software development activity. Canonical itself acknowledged that maintaining Bazaar consumed significant development, operational, and infrastructure resources, resources now better allocated to modernising Ubuntu and Launchpad.

Launchpad’s rollback of Bazaar support will begin with the immediate shutdown of the Loggerhead web frontend, used for browsing Bazaar code repositories. Canonical cited declining legitimate traffic, with much of the web interface usage now coming from scrapers and automated bots. At this stage, developers will still be able to interact with repositories via command‑line tools, with pushes, pulls, and merges unaffected.

The second phase, starting 1 September 2025, will eliminate the Bazaar backend entirely. After this date, Launchpad will no longer host Bazaar repositories, meaning developers cannot push, pull, merge, or browse code via Bazaar. Canonical has urged all users to migrate their code before this shutdown to avoid service disruption.

Migration instructions have been made available on Ubuntu’s Discourse platform and Launchpad’s documentation site. The recommended method relies on native Bazaar‑to‑Git interop, using tools like ‘brz push’ that convert Bazaar revisions into Git history. Users have reported this process to be slower but more reliable than older export‑import methods.

Not all Bazaar users are fluent with Git. In community discussions, one long‑time developer lamented that “I love the simplicity of bazaar/launchpad… I really do not get git.” Another emphasised the invaluable contributions of Jezmer Vernooij, the maintainer of the Breezy fork, describing him as “probably the most tangible act of generosity that can be made among strangers in the open source world”.

Ubuntu and Launchpad gained prominence through Bazaar because it was once the only version control system supported for packaging and PPAs. Over time, Git’s features, performance, branching model, and ecosystem—spanning GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket—made it the clear choice for modern development.

Canonical highlighted its decision to deprecate Bazaar as part of its broader effort to modernise development workflows. By reallocating resources from maintaining outdated infrastructure like Bazaar, Canonical intends to better support Ubuntu’s core development and implement improvements to Launchpad as a whole.

Despite the shift, Bazaar will not disappear entirely from the world of open source. Users who wish to continue using Bazaar beyond Launchpad’s support cutoff can host their repositories with services like GNU Savannah, which remains committed to Bazaar support. Breezy, the active fork of Bazaar, will also continue to receive maintenance, ensuring the version control system endures for those who prefer it.

The discontinuation of Bazaar on Launchpad marks a significant moment in the history of Ubuntu’s development tools. Once tightly integrated into canonical workflows for building DEBs, PPAs, snaps and Ubuntu itself, Bazaar’s sundering from Launchpad symbolises the retreat of niche VCS in favour of universally supported tools. It speaks to broader shifts in software development culture, aligning Ubuntu with prevailing industry practices centred on Git.

Canonical has emphasized that Ubuntu Engineering will receive migration support, and developers with unique needs are encouraged to reach out via Launchpad’s feedback channels or Matrix. The company aims to collaborate closely to remove reliance on Bazaar-specific integrations used in Ubuntu’s engineering systems.

As the 1 September deadline approaches, developers must act swiftly to export their repositories. Migrating preserves their revision histories, branches, and tags, ensuring continued project development. Those who delay risk losing remote access to their code and may face complex manual recovery efforts after Bazaar support ends.

Bazaar’s sunset also underscores the dominance of Git in open‑source workflows. According to the 2024 Stack Overflow developer survey, approximately 98 per cent of developers use Git, everyone from hobbyists to large enterprises. Git’s extensive ecosystem of CI/CD tools, integrations, and community support has entrenched it as the developer standard.

Despite familiarity with Bazaar among legacy projects, the broader open‑source ecosystem has migrated towards Git. Organisations seeking to maintain compatibility with the wider community, attract contributors, and leverage automated development pipelines will find Git essential. Enterprises relying on Bazaar must reevaluate their infrastructure and workflows to align with this reality.

Canonical’s decision reflects both pragmatic resource allocation and alignment with community norms. By removing Bazaar support, it simplifies the development stack, reduces maintenance burden, and clarifies the path forward for Ubuntu’s development ecosystem. While the transition brings uncertainty for long‑time Bazaar users, structured migration pathways and continued community support via Breezy and alternative hosts offer continuity.

This move also signals potential future efforts by Canonical to deprecate other legacy services on Launchpad, focusing the platform on components with active developer and user bases. By streamlining services, Canonical may enhance Launchpad’s relevance in contemporary software engineering workflows.