Problems in new LTS flavors of Ubuntu

[Coastie]

The main reason why we release over a month after each LTS.

 

[Jerry]

The main reason why we release over a month after each LTS.

[nomko]

Yes I agree however with Ubuntu the LTS is suppose to avoid these issues due to everything being tested and solid before being released. Whats the difference between other releases.

Not so true, you can test software as much as you can but you can never pick out all bugs. The reason for that is the changing environment of the end-user's systems. Not everybody has the same system and use the same hardware. I've seen examples of users who installed a Linux distro on 2 equal systems (equal regarding to brand/model/hardware) and still came across issues. While one system ran like a cuckoo cuckoo clock, the other system popped up all kind of errors. Ubuntu released beta versions of 16.04 just for the reason of having it tested "in the wild". Also know as bug-hunting. With all the reports/feedback they get, the dev's are trying their best to eliminate as much bugs as possible until they reached a version which is almost bug-free and stable.

It's like with new car models. They build prototypes to test the car on a testcircuit to find the car flaws but when it goes into production there will always be 1 or 2 things left they find out later. And then you get a letter of your car dealer to bring the car back to the garage for repair/parts replacement. 

The difference between 14.04, 14.10, 15.04, 15.10 and 16.04 is that only version 14.04 and 16.04 are LTS versions, meaning Long Term Support. The other versions are so-called "in between" versions. These "in between" versions are merely meant to test new packages, new software, new changes and are a bit rough on the edges and not really stable and let users getting familiar with these changes. LTS versions on the other hand, are meant to be stable and reliable having full support for 5 years while the "in between" versions have a lifespan of 9 months. After that 9 month ALL support will be dropped and the repository will be closed for those "in between" versions.

Most people who choose LTS expect things to work 99% and in this case Ubuntu has dropped the ball as It maybe because their taking on too much to look after the details. Also I have heard from others that Ubuntu was the goto distro for new users. However now it seems not to be the case now.
Also developers are finding that adding software to the Ubuntu repos a bit more of a hassle than other distros. Seems to be a bit of a 180 on Ubuntu part.

In the beginning Ubuntu really was the go-to and easy-to-learn distro. Mainly for 3 reasons:
1) The Gnome 2 desktop environment
2) Canonical made sure that almost everything worked out-of-the-box
3) The easy learning curve of Ubuntu

Ubuntu lost a lot of users not because of Ubuntu itself, but due to the fact that Gnome 2 was ditched on favour of Gnome 3 desktop environment and the fact that Canonical created the Unity desktop forked from Gnome 3. Lot of users disliked the Unity desktop and also the Gnome 3 desktop and went on distrohopping of which most users ended up with Linux Mint providing the users 2 appealing desktop environment (Cinnamon & Mate) giving the users a more attractive and intuitive desktop environment beside the 2 known desktop environments (KDE+Xfce). Also the path forward Canonical choose for Ubuntu made it look like for many users as running a race with a death horse. Adding the Amazon search feature was for most users a no-go feature. This was seen as added spyware into the Ubuntu distro.

The hassle you're talking about i agree. Canonical's philosophy of releasing a new version every 6 months turns out to be creating a "Frankenstein's monster". Especially as i mentioned, the "in between" versions are to rough on the edges and not really polished. Better is the new strategy of Linux Mint were they only want to release a new Mint version every time a new Ubuntu LTS version is released. No more "in between" versions for Mint. This will improve a lot of things and the dev's can focus their attention to the Mint distro at a much higher level. Instead of focussing on the (every) 6 month release they now can focus on stability, improvement of specific Cinnamon/Mate applications and integration and on the finishing touch. Which sound much better to me. 

[LinuxNoob]

I have seen some reviews reporting problems in the new LTS flavors of Ubuntu.

Every new release comes with small hick-ups, bugs, and flaws. That always happened and will always happen in the future. All of these "issues" will be solved from now on with updates and fixes. Every LTS version of Ubuntu, and its derivatives, will have point releases, i.e. 16.04 => 16.04.1 => 16.04.2, etc. These releases will fix "what went wrong in the previous release", or in other words, it is just a new release of Ubuntu 16.04 including all bugfixes released up till the release date of that point release.

How will these problems effect Linux Lite 3.0? Delay 3.0 release?

Ofcourse it will effect LL. All bugs and flaws in Ubuntu 16.04 will be in LL 3.0. If the dev's of LL follow the release path of Ubuntu, LL will also be updated periodically getting the latest updates and fixes. So yes, it will effect LL 3.0 badly but furthermore positively by receiving the same updates and (bug)fixes as Ubuntu.

Yes I agree however with Ubuntu the LTS is suppose to avoid these issues due to everything being tested and solid before being released. Whats the difference between other releases.

Most people who choose LTS expect things to work 99% and in this case Ubuntu has dropped the ball as It maybe because their taking on too much to look after the details. Also I have heard from others that Ubuntu was the goto distro for new users. However now it seems not to be the csase now.

Also developers are finding that adding software to the Ubuntu repos a bit more of a hassle than other distros. Seems to be a bit of a 180 on Ubuntu part.

[nomko]

I have seen some reviews reporting problems in the new LTS flavors of Ubuntu.

Every new release comes with small hick-ups, bugs, and flaws. That always happened and will always happen in the future. All of these "issues" will be solved from now on with updates and fixes. Every LTS version of Ubuntu, and its derivatives, will have point releases, i.e. 16.04 => 16.04.1 => 16.04.2, etc. These releases will fix "what went wrong in the previous release", or in other words, it is just a new release of Ubuntu 16.04 including all bugfixes released up till the release date of that point release.

How will these problems effect Linux Lite 3.0? Delay 3.0 release?

Ofcourse it will effect LL. All bugs and flaws in Ubuntu 16.04 will be in LL 3.0. If the dev's of LL follow the release path of Ubuntu, LL will also be updated periodically getting the latest updates and fixes. So yes, it will effect LL 3.0 badly but furthermore positively by receiving the same updates and (bug)fixes as Ubuntu.

[Coastie]

Thanks torreydale. 

[torreydale]

LL 2.8 will be supported until April 2019.  You should continue to get security updates on LL 2.8 until then.

I don't imagine what you're reading or seeing is going to affect the release date of LL 3.0.  While there may be some current problems of the base, we'll get the benefits of those problems being addressed by the whole Ubuntu community prior to the launch of LL 3.0.

[Coastie]

I have seen some reviews reporting problems in the new LTS flavors of Ubuntu. How will these problems effect Linux Lite 3.0? Delay 3.0 release?

How long will Linux Lite 2.8 be supported?