Proposed: A Monthly Ubuntu Release Cycle

[ioannis]

Turning Ubuntu into a rolling release (as this proposal seems to suggest will happen eventually), is a good thing. Seems to have been triggered for the wrong reasons though, but anyway.

What is it with people and Unity? In my opinion, Unity is the best thing that has ever happened to Ubuntu. My only argue is that maybe Canonical should have worked with Gnome 3 people instead, since they more or less have the same design philosophy. Otherwise, Unity is a very much welcome change.

I'm often introduce Ubuntu to new users (friends that are hit badly by viruses and require full re-install of their Windows). I was struggling to convince them to switch to Ubuntu, even with Compiz's bling. It was just too confusing for them (contrary to the belief many have that making Linux 'look' more like windows is easier for newcomers. I even tried KDE and windows look-alike distros with them to no avail). However with Unity, they seem to be more comfortable with the change.

Don't get me wrong. It's far from perfect. But it's a change in the right direction.

Some of the changes I'd like to see is use of Gnome 3 like notifications. Less clutter and less intrusive (they kind of remind me of webOS )

[kraftman]

Those OSes have a major pro. They are an OS *and* a distribution.
This means that the kernel itself is shipped along with a (rather) complete operating environment.
Everything is under control. Customization can be done atop of them.
The major con is that they have very limited resources due to the extreme fragmentation in the open source arena.
Too many projects, each with too few resources to get to high quality releases, all making more or less the same thing.
There should be instead a different organization, with no (or very little) overlapping among projects.
But this is just a dream. I also have one.

No, you want me to get back to win98? There was time for bsd in the past, but then Linux came out. I like the idea about monthly updates for Ubuntu, but I think they should be restricted to non invasive packages like KDE, Firefox etc.

[madjr]

heck yeah!, finally they are looking into this such old problem

[LLStarks]

Ubuntu's release schedule is why features like systemd and a cutting-edge X are delayed until October 2012, after the April 2012 LTS.

[bug77]

+1. But what about fixes? Would you prefer to wait until next release?
IMHO, "release it when it's ready" is OK as far as bug fixes first go to the current one and only later to the next one.
Ubuntu is doing the other way around with a twist: there are fixes that won't ever reach the current.

You're going to get the next release asap. Why do you need the fix backported to the current release?

[plonoma]

That is really ridiculous.
They need to separate the core platform from applications.
Provide a new big update of the core platform once an year.
Provide more application updates.

How are they going to find time to test everything?

I also completelly agree with allquixotic.
Linux api's need to stabilize a bit but that's something that can't be forced.
Application developers should try to stick to LSB stuff as a reliable base.

[plonoma]

You're going to get the next release asap. Why do you need the fix backported to the current release?

When this always happens. I never get anything that actually works ever!
This is what's happening constantly.

[vervelover]

+ 1 for the "update the core once every one-two years, and keep the apps up to date" solution. Like it's on every other non-linux operating system. You still get updated apps for win xp, come on.

[movieman]

What is it with people and Unity?

It's a decent netbook GUI.

It's an appallingly inefficient and clunky desktop GUI unless all you ever do is boot up and start Firefox to log into Facebook.

It's being forced on everyone regardless of whether they have a netbook or a desktop/laptop.

[bug77]

That is really ridiculous.
They need to separate the core platform from applications.
Provide a new big update of the core platform once an year.
Provide more application updates.

You mean, like having a kernel, entirely separated from applications? Or do you need another kernel?