‘Ubuntu Needs a Longer Release Schedule!’

“Mark Shuttleworth discussed at length the importance and
benefits of a short release cycle in his Linuxcon keynote: it
generates excitement and keeps contributors motivated. And it
follows the long-standing principles of “many eyes make all bugs
shallow” and “release early, release often.”

“Ubuntu has a dual release cycle: every six months a new
alliterative critter is loosed upon the world, and the Long-Term
Support (LTS) releases occur every two years. I poked around
Ubuntu.com looking for more information on Ubuntu’s release cycles
and didn’t find much in the way of explanations and what users
should expect. The Ubuntu Release Cycle contains release schedules,
and Maintenance policy and life-cycle: Ubuntu Server Edition
details the server edition.

“A search for “release cycles” on Ubuntu.com returns a number of
discussions proposing an annual release instead of six months;
proponents of an annual release believe the six-month releases are
too buggy and want more pre-release testing.

“More Opinions Than People

“As with all things Linux all of this debating is fun and
entertaining, but not always conclusive. So I decided to go to the
source and ask Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager, to explain
the Ubuntu release cycle and clarify some of the whys and
wherefores.”

Complete
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