Rolling Ubuntu

The main reason that Ubuntu does not follow the rolling release model is because the Ubuntu developers decided not to. A simple rolling release model would not have the stability that many users, especially business uses, need.

So, the situation is this. If you want stability install an LTS. If you want bleeding edge then install the development release. The development release gets updates daily. But I should wa you. Stability is built into the development release as well. The idea is for developers to use the development release and update their applications without having to wait for the next version of Ubuntu to be released.

There was a big discussion about this subject several years ago at a Ubuntu developer summit. Interestingly, things are done differently on Ubuntu phone. A retail Ubuntu phone is set by default to a stable update chael and updates/upgrades are pushed out every 6 - 8 weeks. But there are other chaels that can be used and those chaels receive daily updates.

If we every get Ubuntu desktop built on a snappy Ubuntu core, then that OS will almost have a rolling release model. Snappy Ubuntu core is designed in such a way that if an upgrade to the OS snap fails in some way the system will roll back to using the previous OS snap. The method is called Transactional Updates. Instead of the system being upgraded package by package, library by library it is only the code differences that are downloaded.

Regards.