LTS question

[oxf]

I have a question about Long Term Support. OK 8.04 is the most recent LTS right. What --exactly-- does this mean? OK yes I know its supported longer but what does this mean in reality and why would someone choose to stay with the last LTS and not the most recent release? I hear people who say will stick with 8.04LTS until the next LTS comes out.

I still have the original 8.04 CD I downloaded when it was first released but if I were to download 8.04LTS now would this include all the updates you would get periodically through update manager and be different from the original CD?

Mike

[D-cat]

LTS releases do get updates, and after some significant amount of updates, they are included in the images (e.g. Xubuntu CD is at 8.04.1, I think the others are at 8.04.2).

The point to staying with LTS releases is that there are no major overhauls to the system configuration. The idea is instead of always being prodded to a newer release because you lost support for the current one, there's one every now and then that just provides updates for a few years. By having a release that doesn't overhaul the configuration, it tends to remain stable.

Every version upgrade people hold their breath: What new features am I going to get/what am I going to have to relearn? What's suddenly not going to work anymore? Some home users just don't like dealing with it. Some have older systems they don't want to slow down with a newer version. Some people manage systems for hundreds of users... there's something you don't want to risk breaking.

This system caters to both worlds. The people who want to install it once, do whatever they have to do to it, and from then on it just works will go with the LTS releases. Those who don't mind tinkering and want to stay on top with the latest and greatest will install the incremental releases.

[Bemk]

I stick with the LTS because I have important school stuff on my system. It is backed up, but I'd rather not need it. The risk of breaking something is too big to do the short term upgrades.