[conspire] Ubuntu

[Rick Moen]

Clarifying something I wrote earlier:
 
> Basically, what they're doing, it seems, is maintaining 
> slightly-delayed-for-quality-control mirror of (some subset of?) the 
> Debian-unstable package collections -- probably with some
> differences...


Here's a recent explanation on the ubuntu-users mailing list:

  "The snapshot of Debian sid used as the starting point for Warty
  development was frozen in late June.  Sarge entered its first stage 
  of freeze (affecting "base" and "standard" packages only) over a 
  month later on August 7th.  The rest of Debian is not yet frozen, 
  and new versions of software continue to enter sarge."

So, they forked off "sid" (the Debian unstable branch) as it was four
months ago.  They'll probably do the same again at intervals, to 
support their planned six-month release cycle.

(In fact, they're preparing to start -- immediately following
WartyHedgehog's release -- a new, beta-ish branch called
"HoaryHedgehog", which will be exactly that, and will aim at an April
2005 release.  After that will come GrumpyHedgehog.)



Bill Lazar asked:

> How is this distribution up to v4.10 when this is the first real
> release.  Isn't it?                                                

They've FAQed this.  Quoting
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/faq/version-numbers :

Q:  Why does your first release have a version of 4.10? And what does
the version of an Ubuntu release mean?

A:  Our version numbering scheme is based on the date we release a
version of the distribution. Our first release is in October 2004 so the
version is 4.10. Our next release, sometime early 2005, will be roughly
5.04. So the version number comes from the year and month of the release
rather than being an indicator of a specific piece of software in the
release.

Each Ubuntu release has a unique combination of component versions -
kernel, X, Gnome, GCC, libc... so an aggregate version number does not
make much sense. We prefer to give you an idea of when that release was
pushed to the wires.



And, before you ask, here's
http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support/documentation/faq/helpcenterfaq.2004-09-15.0176581601: 

Q:  What happens with the version number in 2100?

A:  Our grandchildren should be able to figure that one out. At the
moment we're just focused on the next release :-)