Avoiding fragmentation with a rolling release

[Michael Hall]

On 03/01/2013 12:34 AM, Martin Pitt wrote:
> Michael Hall [2013-02-28 22:04 -0500]:
>> This is also something that concerns me in our efforts to make Ubuntu
>> a target platform for app developers.  We need to make some commitment
>> to supporting platform APIs during these rolling releases between LTS
>> so developers know what they can expect.
> 
> I don't think that's feasible with a RR model. We don't even control
> most of the APIs that are in Ubuntu even.
> 
> As Matthew Paul Thomas and others pointed out, we primarily want to
> recommend the LTS releases on the download page and for most users, so
> that's certainly what ISVs should target, too?
> 
>> Personally I don't think "target only LTS releases" is going to be
>> acceptable to most ISVs, especially those writing consumer "apps",
>> where you can go from nobody to the most downloaded and back to nobody
>> in the span of 2 years (think of the rapid rise and fall of games like
>> Words with Friends, or Draw Something).
> 
> How is that related to the platform they target? If anything, it seems
> to me that targetting LTS only is going to make things easier for this
> kind of "ephemeral app" use case, as it significantly reduces the
> required maintenance and porting of those?
> 
> Martin
> 

It depends on who is using the LTS and who is using the rolling release.
 If a significant number of our users are on the rolling release, or if
an important demographic (say, technology leaders, or people willing to
pay for the latest and greatest) are on the rolling release, then ISVs
are going to want to target that.

--
Michael Hall
mhall119 at ubuntu.com