33 replies to this topic

[Syanide]

Ubuntu considers “huge” change that would end traditional release cycle

Ubuntu 12.10 (thus named because it came out in October 2012) has just arrived, and 13.04 and 13.10 will come in April and October of 2013. But 14.04 in April 2014 could be the last version released after just a six-month development period. 14.04 is also the next "Long Term Support" or LTS edition. Every two years, Ubuntu is sort of frozen in place with a more stable edition that is guaranteed support for five years. If the change Canonical is considering is adopted, every future edition starting with 14.04 will be an LTS, so the next version after 14.04 would be 16.04 in April 2016.

Why bother? Canonical kernel team manager Leann Ogasawara explained in a Google hangout today that this proposal is on the table because Canonical thinks it can deliver both stability and cutting-edge features with rolling releases. For the two years between LTS releases, there would be no new versions but there would be lots of updates.

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[Max Norris]

Haven't been a fan of the distro on the desktop side for a few years now... but it's about f'ing time, the six month thing was a turnoff.

[Syanide]

Yeah, great thing imo.

[bman]

It doesn't really bother me either way.

[Tyler R.]

All Linux distros should do this,imo.

[n_K]

Syanide, on 23 January 2013 - 14:16, said:

Why bother? Canonical kernel team manager Leann Ogasawara explained in a Google hangout today that this proposal is on the table because Canonical thinks it can deliver both stability and cutting-edge features with rolling releases.

Oh cahoot, does that mean thorough testing and coding of any changes they make before actually implementing them and forcing them on users, if so; microsoft, arch linux team, nokia, et al. please take note.

[+ViperAFK]

This could be a good idea, the 6 month release cycle has become pretty outdated IMO. The non-lts releases have always been glorified betas, so they might as well just go rolling release between the LTS releases. I really like the sound of this.

[tim_s]

I do not use Ubuntu so not the biggest concern but I enjoyed Arch when I tried it but went back to Gentoo.

[Growled]

I really like this idea. I think it would totally work for them, and us.

[tim_s]

Could it ever truly be rolling if debian is not rolling?

[Max Norris]

tim_s, on 24 January 2013 - 02:22, said:

Could it ever truly be rolling if debian is not rolling?

Debian has (or at least had last time I messed with it) a rolling branch, unstable (Sid).
http://wiki.debian.o...le#Introduction

[tim_s]

My apologies, I thought unstable was not rolling.

[Growled]

Several distros like Bodhi Linux do a semi-rolling release where they update the software but only update the system when they get system updates from Ubuntu. They are based on 12.04.1 currently. I would be happy with something like that, with only security updates coming down the line.

[tim_s]

Seems people are positive about the move - for a desktop this is awesome. Probably not enough to make me switch to Ubuntu but I like to see change.

[Max Norris]

Growled, on 24 January 2013 - 02:31, said:

Several distros like Bodhi Linux do a semi-rolling release where they update the software but only update the system when they get system updates from Ubuntu.

Yea Chakra's doing this too (via Arch).. the core system is released in 'stages' or however you want to word it, the applications themselves (stuff that won't kersplode your system) is rolling. Actually a pretty good setup I think.. system's stable yet you're constantly up to date with the "regular" software.. in theory the worst that'll happen is the one application will crash, no more "holy god what did I do" moments with an update. Arch had a few major doozies if you weren't paying attention to their news feeds and what the updater is doing.