Updates, LTS, Kde, etc

[Jvaldezjr]

I've not upgraded to Edgy, and I probably won't update to Fiesty either, because when Dapper was released, I was very impressed. My Ubuntu experience started with 5.04, and the Kubuntu version was a lot less stable than the Ubuntu version for some reason. When Breezy was released, the Kubuntu version was improved greatly so that I could use Ubuntu without having all the gnome desktop packages installed on my system (I much prefer KDE over GNOME). Now I'm using Dapper, and I'm happy that it will be supported for a long time, because I found that upgrading a system to a new OS version was hard for me to keep up with every 6 months. By the time I tweaked and installed everything I wanted on my system, an updated release would come out with all those changes I just worked on.

Anyway, my question is this. With Feisty and Edgy, some releases for major updates (recently KDE 3.5.6) are packaged only for those distributions, and none for Dapper. Why? Is there any place where I can read about when, and what support/updates to packages will be included into Dapper? I'm not really looking for the lastest and greatest in bleeding edge software, I much rather want something stable, which is what Dapper is for me. I feel like every release (Fiesty, and Edgy) are pushing the Ubuntu/Kubuntu project away from the stableness of the Dapper release, and that packages are being updated for those distributions while those using Dapper are being left behind and being almost forced to update to a less stable, more flashy/shiny release. Can anyone shed some light on the subject?

[kubicle]

Re: Updates, LTS, Kde, etc

The KDE upgrades are quite extensive (not often feature-wise, but the number of packages/dependencies involved), and backporting those upgrades to rather old releases takes a lot of work and can introduce new bugs to a 'stable' release.

I'd think if there were unlimited resources/manpower available (to port and bug-hunt), kde upgrades might get backported for dapper. I also think that the reason many people find dapper so 'stable' is because extra attention was given to make sure the release included packages 'work well' together.

Basically the ideology is that security updates will get into the supported releases, but software version changes not (as a general rule). KDE version changes usually go into the development release (currently feisty), but Riddell seems to usually backport it to the previous release and make it available from the semi-official kubuntu.org repos (note that they are not part of the official ubuntu repos, they are an additional service).

IMHO KDE 3.5.6 is not a 'must install' release, especially if you're not after the 'bleeding edge'.

[Billyray]

Re: Updates, LTS, Kde, etc

I'm with jvaldezjr on this. On the one hand, kubicle explained how difficult it is to update an older release (such as LTS), but on the other, as jvaldezjr has said, people that actually would like to use Linux to accomplish real work, (as opposed to playing in the Linux sandbox) who have just enough time to get their system tweaked to usefullnes, and then want to start using applications, find themselves left behind in a useless state.

I am trying to make Kexi (an important part of KOffice) work for me as a database application, and in its currently released form on the Dapper Drake repository, it is basically less functional than a simple phone book utility! Every new release adds important functionality, without which, Kexi will be denied the user base that will support and help it grow and develop. I want to spend my time fostering the growth of Kexi, and using that application. The operating system should not require endless installations and maintenance (isn't that why we have Windows?)