AWS OpsWorks Stacks now supports Amazon Linux 2 and Ubuntu 18.04 for Chef 12 stacks and Amazon Linux 2018.03 for both Chef 11 and Chef 12 stacks. Previously, the latest supported versions of Amazon Linux and Ubuntu were Amazon Linux 2017.09 and Ubuntu 16.04, which required customized AMIs or Chef recipes in order to take advantage of the stability and security of Amazon Linux 2 and Ubuntu 18.04. Now, you can select Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu 18.04, or Amazon Linux 2018.03 as the default operating system for instances created in your stack with a few clicks. Amazon Linux 2 will offer extended availability of software updates for the core operating system through 5 years of long-term support.