Kubuntu 10.04 will be LTS but it is ready for that

[pan shizhu]

> So my query is: is it the right time to go LTS? ... As I understand it... I am just a fairly techie user.

When we speak LTS it is a very wide concept, consider this:

1. Most ubuntu mirrors will provide LTS mirror in its life-cycle (3-5
years), while non-LTS versions will be removed after 18 months (this
is true for many mirrors).
2. The most important part for any Linux distribution is the
availability of repository.

So, even if Kubuntu 8.04 choose not to go for LTS, it is still LTS
anyway. Because kubuntu 8.04 users get security upgrades for kernel
and system base, and the repository lasts for 5 years.

For most average users, 5 years availability of local mirror
repository is most important, and if Kubuntu choose a different
version from 10.04 as LTS, user will not get any benefit. Since many
local mirrors will delete the packages of non-LTS versions after 18
month, and the kernel/base support of non-10.04 version is poor.

IMO an operating system provides a solid base I can run my application on.
So I think Kubuntu 10.04 has to be LTS regardless of any point. since
LTS mean the support of the whole system, not the support of the
desktop environment only.


> Would it maybe be better to wait for SC 4.5 with, hopefully, more of
> those issues fixed?

Being LTS does not mean feature freeze. we can provide SC 4.5 in
lucid-backport anyway. The most import thing for LTS is a stable
kernel and base tools (gcc, libc, python, etc.), the desktop
environment is pretty much an application, I expect upgrades and
occasional failures and I can live with it.