Introduction

We often hear from readers who want to track the development process of their favorite Linux distribution but don't know where to start. Budding Linux enthusiasts frequently ask how the release cycles work, what the version numbers mean, and what options are available for end-user testing prior to official releases. The answers to those questions differ depending on the distribution, but we are going to attempt to address those questions for Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE—three of the most prominent desktop Linux distributions. We will also provide a brief visual comparison of upcoming versions with screenshots of the prereleases.

Release schedules and version numbering

The mainstream desktop Linux distributions have adopted short release cycles because the open-source desktop software ecosystem tends to evolve incrementally and at a rapid pace. Ubuntu has been very successful with a time-based six-month release cycle that loosely mirrors the GNOME development routine. Fedora has recently adopted this strategy too, which means that (assuming there are no changes or delays) Ubuntu and Fedora releases will both follow GNOME even-numbered releases by one month.

Fedora increments its version number by one for each release, and Ubuntu's version number comes from the year and month of the release (in 8.04, the 8 stands for 2008 and the 04 stands for April). The openSUSE 9.x series had four major point releases separated by six months each, and the 10.x series had four major point releases separated by eight months each (with the exception of the last release, 10.3, which took ten months).

GNOME 2.22, the latest version of the open-source GNOME desktop environment, was released earlier this month and will be included in the next major version of all three distributions. Ubuntu 8.04 and Fedora 9 will both be released next month, and the release of openSUSE 11 is planned for June. All three distros issue prereleases at various intervals during the development cycle so that users can assist with testing and so that third-party developers can port their applications. The Ubuntu 8.04 beta and openSUSE alpha 3 were both released last week. The Fedora 9 beta will be available for download later this week and an alpha was released last month.

Tracking prerelease builds

Prereleases give users a great way to get an early look at upcoming features. Although prereleases lack the robustness of official releases and aren't intended for day-to-day use, they can be installed on spare partitions or in virtualized environments so that they can be tested without disrupting stable installations. I typically prefer to use virtualization because it makes it easy to install multiple versions at once. There are several good free virtualization solutions out there for Linux users, including VMware Server and VirtualBox.

In addition to releasing alpha and beta prereleases, the distributions also make it easy for users to actively track ongoing development by updating from development software repositories. Fedora's perpetual development version, which is called Rawhide, serves up daily snapshots of the latest Fedora packages. The openSUSE equivalent is called Factory. Ubuntu doesn't have a distinct name for its development versions and just uses the codename of the release itself (Ubuntu 7.10 is Gusty Gibbon, and 8.04 is Hardy Heron). The Ubuntu equivalent of Rawhide and Factory are the Ubuntu daily CD builds.

Readers are sometimes surprised by the level of hands-on detail we provide in our coverage of Ubuntu alpha releases. Unlike some other news sites out there, we aren't just cribbing from the release notes. We have plenty of first-hand experience before the alphas are even released because we keep up with the dailies and test extensively throughout the entire development cycle. Those of you who want to keep a constant finger on the development pulse of your chosen distribution can do it too in much the same way. The distributions also all have many different mailing lists (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE) that are very good sources of information.

There are also ways to independently track ongoing development of the major desktop environments. The best way to track GNOME is with the GNOME Developer Kit which is based on Foresight Linux. The Developer Kit is available as an installable ISO or VMware image, and it uses the Conary package manager to keep itself up to date with the latest development code. The Developer Kit is particularly nice because it bundles emerging GNOME software that hasn't been adopted by mainstream distributions yet and it also ships with all the software development tools you need to hack on GNOME applications.

KDE doesn't have anything directly analogous to the GNOME Developer Kit, but users who want to track ongoing KDE development can use almost any major KDE distribution. For my own KDE testing and prereleases reviews, I've generally had the most success with openSUSE. My friend Troy Unrau, who has written extensively about KDE for Ars, speaks highly of Mandriva as another good choice for users who want to track KDE development.