Why must LTS die?

[slickymaster]

Well, there will always be detractors and defenders on both sides.

IMO, machines more suitable to long term support releases will generally be business machines (such as web-servers in datacentre's or servers in a workplace). In such scenarios it would be generally disruptive to be upgrading the operating system every 6 months as opposed to every 3 years, when it is essential to keep the downtime to a minimum.
Generally a long term support distribution will have constant security fixes and the like to keep the system stable, but no major application changes.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

i prefer a LTS release (eg 10.04) as long as it is not full of issues like 12.04, 13.04 would make a better LTS IMO
i upgraded from 10.04 when it was just becoming too out of date (video codecs, mainly)
when 13.04 is released is when i will overwrite my 10.04 install, then upgrade to the next LTS hopefully i can stick with that one a few years

[mamamia88]

Here is my opinion. Distro stands for distribution. A distro is a collection of software that is bundled together and distributed for use. In my opinion it is always prefferable to update the current software collection as new versions are released rather than upgrade nearly everything every 6 months or so. Of course there is always uncertainity with change. But, there should be a way to mitigate risk like having a development branch with an active set of testers with a variety of hardware and packages that a package has to go though before it is released to everybody. Set in stone releases are probably better for businesses but, for home users I see no reason why we can't have the latest and greatest without reinstalling or upgrading the entire system every 6 months. When you think about it what is more likely to go wrong? A massive upgrade every 6 months or continuous upgrades on a daily/weekly basis?

[mJayk]

Nobody is forcing them, but you are assuming the mass public of the world is far more compentent than they actually are. Most people will look to the media, Canonical, and other software and hardware companies for what to run. Of course they all will be sayin "Use Ubuntu 12.04, it the latest from Canonical!" It's only true as in terms of stable release. But the software will be outdated and the mass user who isn't fully aware of Linux and how it works will likely never get new sofware believing they have already have the current and latest.

What a silly thing to say, these "mass public" people want stability over everything so yes they should and are going to choose the bloody stable release. It is only a good thing, nobody forces people to use LTS but it is there if you need pure stability.

Imagine a buisness sending home the emplyees because that days updates broke a feature.

[codingman]

I have an old dell here that I hardly ever use, except when I need it for backup computer usage when my system over here is tied up. I don't want to have to pop up the terminal and update it every time, because that uses precious MB's of its pathetic 768MB RAM. Plus, I don't care about namby-pamby, new hardware junk, that just takes up precious GB's of its poor 30GB HDD. It also weighs the P4 down quite a bit. I tried 12.10 on it, and it was an unappreciatively amount slower that the 12.04 LTS version. Now, when I run it on my considerably newer system, I don't see any difference except when I'm halting. Which the 12.10 release is faster. As for Debian, it's not what would be considered so user-friendly, as well as not having the same way of just working as Ubuntu does. Although some distros that are very closely related are much better, they still need quite a bit of configuration for specific hardware, and as with that old dell, I don't want to spend time trying to get it to work with my system, I want to stay away from that hunk-o-junk as much as possible!

I think that those people that were posting on G+ were total Linux noobs, and had no idea what a benefit LTS does for the world.

[stalkingwolf]

basically it comes down to two groups of people. Those that need/want bleeding edge and those that dont.

[mJayk]

I think it more comes down to the people who want to keep linux for "people like them" and the people who just want everyone to use it.

If you want the general public to use an OS you want options and you want an os that WILL work and need no messing with for years not 2 days then sudo apt-get distro-upgrade.

[stalkingwolf]

last week I set up a laptop for the son of a friend, he is 11. I installed edubuntu 12.04. added a couple things from Qimo and things for his Mom to use. The laptop is an acer aspire 1604z.
The available packages will take him thru highschool. Im not sure the computer will last thru the support period.

it was delivered the 28th. his mom set it up showed him how to log in and off he went. the first day 5 plus hours of exploration. and every day since. He has homework for the vacation that he does on moms computer. since he got his computer he has started asking for more time doing home work.

He doesnt need 6month upgrades. he is happy with what he has.

[forrestcupp]

When you think about it what is more likely to go wrong? A massive upgrade every 6 months or continuous upgrades on a daily/weekly basis?

Well, if you've ever run an alpha version of Ubuntu where they're constantly updating things with the latest versions, you may be inclined to think that massive upgrades to stable and tested software every 6 months is a lot less likely to go wrong.

[Tamlynmac]

Does anyone know if this rolling release concept only applies to Ubuntu or to all Canonical distros?

My primary requirement is stability. I have no desire to constantly negotiate with new and improved anything, just for the sake of change. For all change is not growth - see my signature.

One of the benefits (for me) of using Canonical distros has been the stability of LTSs. Since first installing 7.04 I've learned to test each release prior to install - assuring compatibility and have found generally that LTS releases improve in stability with age. As others have pointed out, upgrades/updates have consistently had issues and since my family uses the same distro as I, stability becomes critical. Assuming, I wish to have a life beyond computers.