Why Ubuntu release schedules should be changed

Sam Varghese
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 04:51

Opinion and Analysis

Since the Ubuntu GNU/Linux distribution kicked off five years ago, it has been churning out release after release every six months.


The decision to release at remarkably rapid intervals is tied to the GNOME Desktop Project's schedules; GNOME releases a month ahead of Ubuntu.

While this pace of development has given Ubuntu a goodly portion of the small number of GNU/Linux desktops worldwide, and also had an effect on many other distributions in that they have tended to release more often in order to compete with Ubuntu, there are indications that it is better for Canonical, the parent company of Ubuntu, to rethink its strategy.

One reason is the bugs that have created a bad buzz for the distribution.

The last two releases, 9.04 and 9.10, have had some showstopper bugs and while it may be true that only a small number of users have suffered, in both cases these have been the most vocal minority.

Every release is bound to cause distress for a number of users. More so, given that Ubuntu is largely taken up by people who are not exactly the most hardened of GNU/Linux users.

This group is the one which feels the biggest sense of entitlement and, thus, makes the loudest noise when things turn rough.

It does not do much for Ubuntu's public image at a time when the company is on the front foot and putting in major efforts to spread its use far and wide in order to get hardware manufacturers interested in pre-installing the distribution.

A second reason why schedules should be spaced out to something like an annual release is the extra cautiousness that has been forced on the project as a result of the problems with the last two releases.

Canonical recently said that it would be auto-syncing its next release, a long-term support one, with the testing stream of Debian, and not the unstable stream as usual.

Debian has three releases which are actively maintained at all times - stable is the current release for which only security fixes are issued; this is, just like its name, rock-solid.

The testing stream receives software from the unstable stream after it has sat in the latter for a while and does not display any serious breakage. Many intermediate-level users opt to use testing on their desktops as it contains much newer versions of software.

The unstable distribution is where active development occurs. This is bleeding-edge stuff and is only meant for experienced people who are prepared to fix things on their own.

Ubuntu has generally been auto-synced with Debian's unstable stream; the fact that Canonical is going to use testing this time is indicative of the cautiousness that has been forced on the company.

If there had been an annual release from the start, it it unlikely that the kind of bug problems seen in recent Ubuntu releases would have surfaced.

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