Ubuntu Core 16 timelines

[Mark Shuttleworth]

Hi folks

Manik asked me to clarify my comments on priorities in the push to
release Ubuntu Core 16, the all-snap version of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

This is the "GA" of snappy LTS, so it's a critical step for us. I'm
absolutely convinced that snaps are an important new primitive for
operations of Ubuntu-based devices of all sorts, and very focused on
helping our users have a great experience with them. All the feedback
we've had on snaps has validated the focus on transactional updates,
rollbacks, and dependency bundling, which is excellent.

What we are debating, and my opinion is part of that debate, is what the
minimal requirements are for us to have a good GA. We are going as fast
as we can while maintaining quality, the question is just whether we
take a little longer to have a more complete GA, or whether we put the
all-snap Ubuntu Core 16 GA out pretty much immediately, at the risk of
having a more significant upgrade issue during the life of Ubuntu Core 16.

What we know for sure is that Ubuntu Core will get meaningful updates
over the coming months, in behaviour as well as the standard security
and reliability fixes. That's because we have a lot of demand for
capabilities in the snap daemon for policy that isn't there yet, but
which we have mapped out pretty clearly, and which we will add to snappy
with updates to Ubuntu Core. For example, enabling better branding of
webdm for gadget manufacturers, better support for control of updates by
manufacturers, better support for open source projects that want any
developer to publish their own snaps of their code, and so on. All of
these are good things we will get in the next couple of months, through
updates to Ubuntu Core, and I would very much like to ensure that those
updates are smooth and hassle free.

We know pretty clearly that we need to separate the kernel snap, os
snap, and gadget snap. That's because we know we want to have a free and
maintained kernel that anybody can use, but we also need gadget
manufacturers to be able to modify the behaviour of the base device.
Those modifications go into the gadget snap.

Gustavo proposed that we publish an image without a gadget snap, or at
least that was my quick reading of his proposal :) My response was to
say I would think we need to at least have a minimal gadget snap so that
we don't have an awkward upgrade. We're having a sprint in ten days time
where I figure we can hash this out. Anyone with strong insights is
welcome to join us in Vancouver or share on the list. My comments are in
the spirit that a two-to-four week delay in publishing official GA
Ubuntu Core 16 images is worth while if it saves us from having a very
hard update in three months time.

I'm in the middle of the OpenStack summit at the moment so am not able
to participate directly in the debate, but trust the team to make the
call having considered my opinion. I look forward to hearing all about
that call in Vancouver :)

If it isn't yet completely clear, I think snappy is the most exciting
thing in Ubuntu right now, and that it will make a huge difference to
everyday usage by developers and device manufacturers, but also people
who just need to get apps to their VMs in the cloud. Engaging with the
developer community is our top priority - we have an amazing community
in Ubuntu, they are very thoughtful and creative and like to find bugs
and send fixes. My sense is that we can grow the community of people who
care about snaps fastest by engaging people who are interested in
building snaps for classic systems (mainly because that's what they and
their friends have today). All of those community insights help build a
better snappy, and a better ecosystem of parts for snaps, and a more fun
community. And that helps us make Ubuntu Core 16 a huge success for
everybody.

When Ubuntu Core 16 ships, it will have *exactly* the same libraries and
binaries and kernel as Ubuntu 16.04 LTS does right now. So encouraging
people to build snaps on classic Ubuntu 16.04 LTS feeds our snap
momentum for Ubuntu Core directly.

I hope this note is reassuring to those who had concerns - I'm not
suggesting a substantial delay, only that we consider thoughtfully the
benefits of a slightly more general minimal-viable GA, and if that costs
us a few weeks now, but saves us from a tricky update later, then we can
use the time to grow developer participation in snaps on classic. My
comments are in the spirit of helping us figure out the best plan for a
huge Ubuntu Core 16, not a diminishing of commitment to the all-snap
world. Far from it, I seem to have spent all week answer very excited
questions about Ubuntu Core snaps on top-of-rack switches for large
scale OpenStack deployments :)

Mark
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