Upgrading in Ubuntu

[Tommy Trussell]

[sorry I forgot to cc the list]

On 5/8/07, Richard Mancusi <vrman49 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 5/8/07, Derek Atkins <warlord at mit.edu> wrote:
...
> > As I said, you should update to 2.0.5 for real usage.  There are a LOT
> > of crashers in early 2.0.x (especially 2.0.2) that were fixed.  I know
> > positively that there's a 2.0.5 for Debian.
...
> Thanks Derek, you gave me EXACTLY the reply I wanted.  Folks on
> the Ubuntu list are wondering if/when we will see updates for Feisty.
> Some are concerned that the developers have already left it behind
> since the next release has been announced.  Others have said that
> Feisty is completely up to date.  I quoted your reply as proof of the
> contrary.  I understood what you originally stated but was hoping for
> the reply you sent the second time - it was worth it.  Believe it or not
> Debian packages do not always work on Ubuntu.  I will roll my own
> if necessary.

I believe the Ubuntu practice is to put a stake in the ground on a
rigid schedule, so once that date passes, nothing in the release
changes EXCEPT for security updates. The mechanism for getting
non-security updates into a release is through Backports, and if the
Debian source package compiles cleanly in Feisty (or Edgy or whatever)
then it can get into Backports.

This has caused all sorts of friction with the developers of some
fast-moving packages and with users who expect to be able to upgrade
to the latest version AND have it happen through the official
repositories.