GNOME3 PPA End of Life Announcement

[Frank M Waterman]

Good morning Jeremy (and everyone else as well).
I am confused and I hope that you can help me.  In your message, you
wrote:
> > Ubuntu 16.10 "yakkety" GNOME3 PPA End of Life will be the end of
> > May 2017.
> > Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "xenial" GNOME3 PPA End of Life has been extended
> > to
> > the end of April 2017.
> > Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 LTS without the PPAs will reach End of Life in
> > April 2019.
> > Remember that non-LTS releases are only supported for 9 months
> > from
> > original release.

Immediately after that, you went on to write:
> > Conclusion
> > ----------------
> > If you are using the GNOME3 PPAs for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, please
> > ppa-purge them. Then, either remain on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or upgrade
> > to
> > Ubuntu 16.10.

If the end of life for 16.04 LTS is not until two years from now, why
is the GNOME3 PPAs for it being shut down and why are you (and by
extension the GNOME team) recommending upgrading to 16.10 when the end
of life for its PPAs is coming up in May of this year?  Perhaps I have
missed a key point, but I do not understand.  My apologies for my
confusion.

On Wed, 2017-03-29 at 10:00 -0400, Jeremy Bicha wrote:
> The Ubuntu GNOME team makes available packages from the
> corresponding
> GNOME release that we are not able to get into the regular Ubuntu
> release. This provides an early look and valuable early testing of
> packages that we hope will be available in the next Ubuntu release.
> 
> The GNOME3 PPAs do not have the same level of support as packages in
> the regular Ubuntu archives. There may be known and unknown bugs and
> regressions. Do not use the PPAs unless you 1) are comfortable using
> ppa-purge 2) backup your data and 3) are able to reinstall your
> operating system in case of a severe problem.
> 
> The Ubuntu GNOME team has realized that we haven't been clear about
> the lifetime of these PPAs. Therefore, we are announcing this policy
> today.
> 
> GNOME3 PPA End of Life Policy
> ------------------------------------------------
> - Each PPA will reach End of Life 7 months after the original
> release
> date of the associated Ubuntu release.
> 
> - At End of Life, no further security of bug fix updates will be
> released. It is recommended to ppa-purge the GNOME3 PPAs. You can
> then
> either upgrade to the next release or remain on the original release
> until that release is End of Life.
> 
> - Please use ppa-purge on all your PPAs (but especially the GNOME3
> PPAs) before upgrading to a new Ubuntu release. After upgrading, if
> you still want a PPA, you are welcome to add it again. You may find
> that you no longer need the PPA.
> 
> - Because of how ppa-purge works, the Ubuntu GNOME developers cannot
> remove packages from the GNOME3 PPAs at the PPA series' End of Life.
> Just because the packages are available does not mean they are
> actively maintained.
> 
> - This policy will apply unless otherwise announced on the
> ubuntu-gnome mailing list.
> 
> Specific Dates
> ---------------------
> Ubuntu 16.10 "yakkety" GNOME3 PPA End of Life will be the end of May
> 2017.
> Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "xenial" GNOME3 PPA End of Life has been extended
> to
> the end of April 2017.
> Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 LTS without the PPAs will reach End of Life in
> April 2019.
> Remember that non-LTS releases are only supported for 9 months from
> original release.
> 
> Conclusion
> ----------------
> If you are using the GNOME3 PPAs for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, please
> ppa-purge them. Then, either remain on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or upgrade
> to
> Ubuntu 16.10.
> 
> On behalf of the Ubuntu GNOME team,
> Jeremy Bicha
>