The Hardy Heron's road divergs into two...

[zcal]

I went to Debian Etch after I got sick of Ubuntu's overload of features and ever-buggier releases. If Canonical wants to continue with its push to make an easy to use distro for the average desktop user, then they should focus on stability rather than the shiny new. If a user wants Compiz, then he'll figure out how to download it from the repos and set it up. Just keep it out of the default installation until it's stable enough not to cause problems!

Really, there's no point in running bleeding edge software if it hinders stability. Sure, there are plenty of Gentoo and Debian Sid users who love to troubleshoot, but it doesn't seem that that's the user base Ubuntu is aiming for. Stability is more important for a crowd concerned with simplicity and ease of maintenance.

I might be persuaded to go back to Ubuntu if Hardy turns out to be as stable as Dapper was for me. Then again...maybe not... I like my stripped down, GDM-free Gnome. (I guess that's why I'm not running Dapper right now, eh?)

[Tundro Walker]

I like the way they're doing it now.

You have your regular releases that let the dev's focus on adding more bells and whistles, then the LTS that focuses on bugs and stability. I'm sure there's a certain amount of both activities going on regardless of the release, but it's good to know that every now and then, they focus more attention on just making the current features in Ubuntu work.

I sort of agree that maybe they need to break out into a "business" version and a "home" version, where the business would get things like games and such left out. But really, it's so hard to tell what a business would and would not need...it should be up to the IT dept of a company to take the regular distro, strip out what's not needed, add what is needed, and package that as a stand-alone Ubuntu distro for its own company, much like Google did.

And so far, I've found Gutsy to be extremely reliable. I haven't had any crashes or funkiness. Wireless was a pain to get going, but other than that, the whole upgrade process was smooth and haven't had major issues. Unlike my parents Windows machine, which decided yesterday to stop acknowledging the modem...

[Bungo Pony]

I vote for stability. Simply put, if anybody wants features, they can add them.

[vishzilla]

LTS releases should be super-stable, for Businesses and Corporates, while the releases between the LTS releases should be feature rich!

[Ocxic]

stay with the norm, make 8.10 a nice stable LTS with bug fixes and such without concentrating so much on new features, this will give us a better base for 8.10 and a more stable release

[t0p]

LTS releases should be super-stable, for Businesses and Corporates, while the releases between the LTS releases should be feature rich!

I don't think Ubuntu should concentrate too much on businesses being the intended users of the LTS release. There should never be a division of Ubuntu into a "business" version and a "home" version. Lots of "home"/"personal" users want the LTS version too.

But also, Ubuntu should not stray from the path of having an LTS release every now and then, with more feature-laden releases in between. Hardy Heron must not be permitted to succumb to featuritis! After all, it won't be very long before Idiot Iguana or whatever comes out - surely the "power users" can wait till then for the bells n whistles!!

[chris4585]

What I think they should do to the next release of Ubuntu should be:

New Look, its about time for 8.04
Also as much as new look focus on the stability
Have a choice to install Compiz at the installer of Ubuntu
Make it LTS

After 8.04, 8.10 should focus on:

Driver Support
Compiz installed by default and turned on by default or have a choice of both
Easy of Use emphasized
bug fixes

Release after that:

new features and stability


I'd really love to have the choice to choose what programs to install for Advanced users, and install everything for recommended
There are alot of things i dont use on Ubuntu, one thing i dont use is the bluetooth services

&

Improve the wireless internet interface!

[kripkenstein]

In this thread titled "Hardy Heron Expectations, Ideas?, which has 716 posts, "stability" is a winner. I'll bet that at least two thirds of the posts are concerned with stability in some way, and in most of those, people have been saying "I want stability foremost".

That may not be a good indication of "what the community wants" in general, but then you don't provide any data to back your speculation either.

In any case, it's hard to reach a definitive judgment and say "this is what the community wants".

I second this. All my impressions based on ubuntuforums indicate that 'the community' wants a stable LTS release for Hardy. Perhaps at UDS things were different, I guess these aren't the same groups of people, but of course there is some overlap I would hope

So, it is very hard to say what 'the community' wants, and I see no reason to think that there is any conflict with what Canonical wants.

Personally, I would be happy for a focus on stability. But just as important is to release it on time - yes, waiting 2 months for Dapper was worth it, but this both (1) made Edgy kind of short on time, and (2) gave the impression Ubuntu isn't reliable in meeting deadlines. A stable LTS released according to schedule would be the best thing Canonical can do to get more people to use Ubuntu IMHO.

[mellowd]

My ubuntu runs on a server so my choice would be for stability.

[julian67]

Canonical doesn't suggest or state that an LTS release is more/extra stable or that a non-LTS release is unstable or less stable. The difference is in the long term availability of security fixes and paid support. I'm sure when 8.04 is released we'll see the usual upgrading problems and, as always with any OS, a few unwelcome new problems.