Suggestion: Rolling / monthly release. What's going to happen on ubuntu +1 sub-forum?

Too funny, VinDsl :D
I really hope this happens and like in time for the 13.04 release....he he

Actually, i have a feeling that this 13.04 testing was a "test bed" to see how reliable updates would roll without having a bunch of alphas, betas, etc...
and now that the "test" has proven quite successful, they are ready to "roll" as it were ;)

Quality control has been quite excellent on this testing..other then then the brief sound breakage in VLC player (which they quickly fixed within a few days), i have had a very relaxed experience with this...
And quality control should be even better when they aren't under the 6 month release "gun" as it were...

The only part i am a little confused about, is...would ubuntu 13.04 "morph" into the new rolling release model or would 13.04 be the last 6 month (with 18 months of updates) release and then you would need to install a new Ubuntu (no more numbers) Rolling Release version...

With UDS running this Tuesday & Wednesday, we won't have to wait long for details.

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The only part i am a little confused about, is...would ubuntu 13.04 "morph" into the new rolling release model or would 13.04 be the last 6 month (with 18 months of updates) release and then you would need to install a new Ubuntu (no more numbers) Rolling Release version...

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The suggestion is to do it NOW! There is no suggestion to wait until after 13.04 is released. The FUD (and I have no way of knowing that it is not FUD) is that all the new code required by the convergence strategy will make 13.04 "old" at the time of its release. It makes me wonder what code they expect to have available by May 2013.

The talk is of having two versions of the development release (my choice of a description as it is a much better description than 'rolling release' I think). One version to be updated daily. The other version to be updated monthly. These monthly snapshots, as they are called, are simply the daily build at that time. There has not been any mention of the monthly snapshots becoming monthly ISO images. How then does a person get this rolling/development version of Ubuntu?

The session is still available on ubuntuonair.com and will be available until it is replaced by the next session scheduled for 5th March. Nick Skaggs was not present but Pete Granier was there. He said nothing although he was labelled as "running the QA team at Canonical."

Regards.

Will only the LTS releases get alliterative names after Raring?

Yes, i watched the video last night, and that seems to be what he is proposing (that 13.04 would become the rolling release instead of releasing as as a 6 month final on April 25th)...

@sgage: Sounds to me like only the LTS would still be numbered and i would think, still get all those funny names (lol)...

Instead of a daily release iso, perhaps there would just be a monthly release iso (so that someone installing wouldn't have a massive amount of updating to do)...that could go along with the "monthly snapshots" as it were, since those are freezes of all the updates that had occurred for the past month...

And when you install, i'd think the simplest way for them would be simply to add to update manager settings, the options of either: 1) updating daily or 2) updating monthly...
and they should be able to add that for those that already have 13.04 testing, installed...

Just finished watching "New Release Process Proposal" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z04ndWaVfJs

Wanted to suggest to the team to do something like opensuse, which has 3 releases. A development release which would be similar to the daily rolling release. A stable rolling updates release called Tumbleweed which would be similar to the monthly rolling release but more stable. And lastly the last release which would be similar to the LTS.

@craig10x: I think they could still release interim numbered releases every 6 months from the monthly edition, but it would be known that they aren't super stable.

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Originally Posted by jphilipz

Just finished watching "New Release Process Proposal" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z04ndWaVfJs

Wanted to suggest to the team to do something like opensuse, which has 3 releases. A development release which would be similar to the daily rolling release. A stable rolling updates release called Tumbleweed which would be similar to the monthly rolling release but more stable. And lastly the last release which would be similar to the LTS.

@craig10x: I think they could still release interim numbered releases every 6 months from the monthly edition, but it would be known that they aren't super stable.

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I usually don't watch many of the videos out there, as most of them are just plain annoying, but on the ubuntu-devel mailing list, it looks like Ubuntu will be going towards the Debian model, although the one big difference the LTS (or stable) release will still have a scheduled release date, instead of the Debian way, when it's ready.

The big assumption from most of the developers is that the majority of Ubuntu users run the LTS version, I suppose they have some sort of statistics available the aren't available to the rest of us mere mortals, but I personally wonder how true this is.

Another comment I picked up on, that one of the reasons behind this change is to please the OEM's. Apparently none of them like the 6 month release cycle, which I can understand, so if the distribution settles on a 2 year release cycle, with a rolling release for those of us that like living at the edge of software development, it would seem that almost everyone will be happy.

One other advantage that I can think of, is that the recommended version for installation will be the LTS release, this should save many new users that seem to think that the latest version is the best version, from falling into the deep end when they install a development release and end up coming here, without even the basic skills needed to fix their broken installation, and expect us to help them solve their problems.

One possible upside is that many bugs won't run up against too late to fix/apply & the fairly common 'fix-released' in the dev, an SRU needed for release where the first occurred/still active.
Certainly won't guarantee that they are addressed promptly, may be quite the opposite to a point.

If this does occur will also be interesting to see how some ppa;s deal with a semi-moving target

I do think that assumptions are being made. It is to be expected when pushing for a change like this that all kinds of arguments are marshalled. That does not make me against the change. I just wish that they would have a look at this forum once in a while and notice all the "I just installed 12.04/12.10. It installed fine but at first reboot I get a black screen." Or "I ran updates and I get a black screen." The releases, LTS or interim, are stable but getting them installed seems to be an issue sometimes.

I also agree that there is a misconception that the latest must be the best. Personally, I have nothing against this change. I have come to the conclusion that they are depending a great deal on machine testing. I hope that they are not overly depending on machine testing. I hope that they do not learn the hard way.

Regards.

I have fallen into the always get the latest version trap as i newly started to move into linux, but am still with windows xp in the windows environment and wouldnt ever change as there isnt a need to fix something that aint broke. :)

Well as ubuntu LTS's are only installed on PCs/Laptops that come with it pre-installed and have longer life spans then interim versions, that tells you everything about what people would have at any point in time. But most reviews i've read normally dont say enough has changed in interim updates to justify the upgrade.

Was looking around and saw this article on someone else opinion on the rolling release idea.

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What I would do: Ubuntu Rolling ReleaseThe idea really is that Ubuntu’s rolling release (alpha/betas) shouldn’t become a seperate product from Ubuntu’s LTS industry targets. Instead if we think about the platform as a whole, we should be able to put together both LTS and RR versions of Ubuntu into a single package. It would then be possible to do some really interesting things, like using one ubuntu install to repair or analyse the other....

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