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Ubuntu May Move To Rolling Releases

Posted by timothy on from the gathering-no-moss dept.

formfeed writes "The register claims that 'Ubuntu is moving away from its established six-month-cycle and potentially to a future where software updates land on a daily basis.' While this sounds like a sudden change, it is apparently more of a long-term thought. The Register quotes Shuttleworth: '"Today we have a six-month release cycle," Shuttleworth said. "In an internet-oriented world, we need to be able to release something every day. That's an area we will put a lot of work into in the next five years. The small steps we are putting in to the Software Center today, they will go further and faster than people might have envisioned in the past."' But given that many of Shuttleworth's thoughts became decisions later on, it might be interesting to see, where this one leads. Interestingly enough, five years is about the time when Ubuntu will run out of letters."

13 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. that's really good! by mhh91 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have used Arch Linux for quite some time,and I like it when I have the latest software without having to update to a newer release,or wait for a new one to be available

  2. Instability through Obscurity by Sarten-X · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The biggest problem I've had with Arch is that changes are only tested on a few common packages before being sent out. If you use an obscure package routinely, it might not be tested decently with any given change, especially to libraries.

    Once a change breaks something, you're left trying to install multiple versions, locking versions, modifying the source, or other such deep magic. Very quickly, the whole system gets to be too big a hassle to deal with.

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    1. Re:Instability through Obscurity by tenchikaibyaku · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I'm sure I'll get some flack for saying this, but this is one place where I think that gentoo is slightly better than arch: you have more power to (easily) put together a set of packages that works for you.

    2. Re:Instability through Obscurity by DrXym · · Score: 2, Interesting
      Once a change breaks something, you're left trying to install multiple versions, locking versions, modifying the source, or other such deep magic. Very quickly, the whole system gets to be too big a hassle to deal with.

      Maybe the answer is something akin to restore points in Windows, noting prior to an upgrade what system files will be overwritten, backing them up (and the dpkg database) and then installing the update. If there is a screwup, then you can rollback to some point in the past.

    3. Re:Instability through Obscurity by Beelzebud · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well I also use Arch, and I've never had problems when using packages from the official repository, or a maintained AUR package.

    4. Re:Instability through Obscurity by Risen888 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, that's easy. I don't remember the directory path right now (I'm at work), but maybe it's something like /var/cache/pacman/somethingorother, all the old package files are right there. I've had to go back there a couple times, but that's about the extent of the headaches I've ever had.

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  3. Re:Obvious problem is obvious by pecosdave · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That happened to me.

    ON DEBIAN STABLE

    Seriously, running Debian Stable happily for months. They release a break for my Firewire, obviously a security update because it's STABLE, then they release a break for my sound, I didn't feel like futzing with drivers and stuff, that's why I stayed on stable. I went to Kubuntu. 8 months later I figured I would try Debian again. Still broke. I don't know what they were thinking, but stable isn't.

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  4. Ubuntu SID? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    This was Debian's solution, still in development. No long cycles and it's great for the people who love the bleeding edge.

  5. Re:Obvious problem is obvious by pecosdave · · Score: 2, Interesting

    My results were like yours. That's why I finally switched to stable from testing. Got tired of working on my system instead of using my system.

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  6. Isn't Linux supposed to be modular? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    When will they stop pretending that apps are part of an operating system? Ubuntu confuses an OS with a kitchen-sink app. Desktop backgrounds, specific customized version of a specific browser, instant messaging, graphics editor -- none of these belong in an OS. None of these should be part of (depend on) an OS upgrade. An OS should provide a stable basis for all versions of all programs to run. If they could achieve that, there would be no need for frequent updates, except for the adventurous.

  7. Debian CUT by sakti · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Debian CUT == Constantly Usable Testing.

    A recently started project in Debian with a similar goal of a rolling release (along with an idea of installable snapshots).

    http://cut.debian.net/
    http://lwn.net/Articles/406301/

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  8. Re:Obvious problem is obvious by sourcerror · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Well, Ubuntu 9.x had some issues with ATI drivers. (Updated Xorg, and the ATI binary driver didn't work.)

  9. Re:Obvious problem is obvious by Stupendoussteve · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Did you happen to post a bug, or just assume they knew that their stable security update had actually broken something?

    If there was a bug, it would have been fixed.