unity-design team mailing list archive

["Nicholas Ipsen(Sephiroth_VII)" <sephiroth7vii@xxxxxxxxx>]

Reading the Wiki, it sounds a lot like stability *is *the goal of an LTS.

>From the Ubuntu Wiki(I've added the red for emphasis):

Release Plan Details
>
>    1.
>
>    We are more conservative in our package merge with Debian,
>    auto-synching with Debian *testing*, instead of Debian unstable.
>    2. We start stabilizing the release early by significantly limiting the
>    number of new features. We will choose which features we package into the
>    LTS release, versus which ones we leave out and allow for users to
>    optionally download and use from a separate archive.
>    3.
>
>    Avoid structural changes as far as possible, such as changing the
>    default set of applications, lots of library transitions, or system layer
>    changes (example: introducing KMS or hal → DeviceKit<https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DeviceKit>would not have been appropriate changes in a LTS).
>
> Furthermore, we define the LTS to be:
>
>    -
>
>    *Enterprise Focused:* We are targeting server and multiple desktop
>    installations, where the average user is moderately risk averse.
>    -
>
>    *Compatible with New Hardware:* We will make point releases throughout
>    the development cycle to provide functional support for new server and
>    desktop hardware.
>    -
>
>    *More Tested:* We will shorten the development window and extend the
>    Beta cycle to allow for more testing and bug fixing
>
> and clearly state that it is *not*:
>
>    -
>
>    *A Feature-Based Release:* We will focus on hardening functionality of
>    existing features, versus introducing new ones*1*, except for in the
>    areas of Online Services and Desktop Experience*2*.
>    -
>
>       *1.* Exceptions for priority projects will be documented, with
>       Feature Freeze coinciding with the Beta1 Freeze date
>       *2.* Because these two areas of development are relatively new, they
>       still require new features to satisfy the original reasons for their
>       creation
>       -
>
>    *Cutting Edge:* Instead of doing an automatic full package import from
>    Debian unstable, we will do it from Debian *testing1*. The benefit we
>    gain from not introducing new bugs and/or regressions outweighs the new
>    features and/or fixes we often get from unstable.
>    -
>
>       *1.* We reserve the right to *selectively* pull in updates from
>       unstable, if we believe the stability of the package in Debian is better
>       than what is in the current Ubuntu archive.
>
> To support our goal of ensuring stability, we plan to make a small number
> of changes to the release schedule:
>
>    1.
>
>    *Reduced Alpha Stage:* Because we will have substantially less new
>    code, we can reduce the number of Alpha releases, and extend the Beta stage
>    to allow for more system testing.
>    2.
>
>    *Two Beta Releases:* We generally get more bugs filed in the Beta stage
>    because of the increase in user base. In order to address more of these
>    issues, we will provide an additional Beta release.
>
>