Several online publications including the Register, Lifehacker and Phoronix have recently run stories quoting Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth as having said that the Ubuntu Linux distribution may be moving to a rolling release schedule. These stories are apparently based on comments made several days ago in conference calls with Shuttleworth.

The stories have prompted a response from Engineering Director of Ubuntu Rick Spencer. Spencer says quite clearly in his blog yesterday that "Ubuntu is not changing to a rolling release". He goes on to say, "We are confident that our customers, partners, and the FLOSS ecosystem are well served by our current release cadence. What the article was probably referring to was the possibility of making it easier for developers to use cutting edge versions of certain software packages on Ubuntu. This is a wide-ranging project that we will continue to pursue through our normal planning processes".

Ubuntu is currently released on a six month schedule with an April release (version x.04), followed by an October release (version x.10). This schedule is augmented by a Long Term Support (LTS) version designated from one of the six month releases.

The current version is Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" and the latest LTS version is Ubuntu 10.04.

(trk)