What to expect with updates

[Paul Lemmons]

I am a long time user of Fedora (since FC2) but when it came to choosing
a distro for my laptop I chose to use Kubuntu. Feisty arrived before
Fedora 7 and even the beta live CD worked perfectly. I have been using
Feisty now since about a week after GA and am still impressed. Being new
to the party, though, I have some questions dealing with updates.

I am used to staying fairly up to date and current on the software I am
using. I think I am running into the philosophical difference between
Fedora and Kubuntu and would like to know what to expect. For example, I
would like to upgrade to Thunderbird 2.0 and while I am at it a Kernel
that is 2.6.21 or greater. To do this the "Kubuntu way" do I wait 6
months for the next rev? I know I can do it outside of apt/adept  'cuz I
am an old dog but I would like to learn some new tricks :)

Any comments, directions, work-arounds or rants welcome.