long term support release

[Krzysztof Halasa]

Till Maas <opensource at till.name> writes:

> Afaik, there are sometimes changes that cannot be done within the running 
> system.

They could be done next boot.

> Also the new releases are useful whenever an update of a package 
> requires manual intervention, because then this can be documented in the 
> release notes and then there are no unpleasent surprises.

If a package knows a manual intervention is needed it could postpone the
upgrade. Release notes could be updated as needed.

> And the update 
> cycles also allow to be sure that some update-paths do not need to be 
> supported anymore, e.g. when a conversion of a config file is needed and the 
> latest release with the old config file is old enough, the code within the 
> spec can be skipped.

Continuous update doesn't mean ability to update from arbitrarily old
package versions, the "supported" period could be shorter than
now. You would have to be able to update from the last bootstrap disc,
that's all.
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa