There has been some discussion of the differences between the RPM and
DEB philosophies, in particular Ubuntu LTS and RHEL derivatives such as
the soon to be defunct SL without clear replacement (hopes for RockyEL
that probably will not have the sort of support the HEP community
through CERN/Fermilab provided, or perhaps Princeton Springdale, or even
hope that the HEP community will re-introduce SL now that CentOS "8" et
seq. effectively is RHEL semi-beta). After some digging, I found the
URL that explains the Canonical Ubuntu philosophy, also as reflected in
the the release numbering scheme used by Ubuntu. Please note that I am
not affiliated with Ubuntu in any way other than as a "user"; this note
is *NOT* an advertisement for or against any distro, merely a
clarification as to the "philosophy" of an "enterprise production"
distro other than SL.
The relevant URL is:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__wiki.ubuntu.com_LTS&d=DwICaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=YHVn3IEuYexuWWwLYQFegF7TqJbRDPX4ksA9J8RXARM&s=gufQbFWexsVtfH5N6GgFQVCYwt6F0XILQwqxNNBOkZA&e=
(again, note that Ubuntu is NOT a .org or .edu, but a .com). Currently,
in the above URL, it is stated:
There is no extra fee for the LTS version; we make our very best work
available to everyone on the same free terms. Upgrades to new versions
of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge.
AND
Furthermore, we define the LTS to be:
Enterprise Focused: We are targeting server and multiple desktop
installations, where the average user is moderately risk averse.
Compatible with New Hardware: We will make point releases
throughout the development cycle to provide functional support for new
server and desktop hardware.
More Tested: We will shorten the development window and extend the
Beta cycle to allow for more testing and bug fixing
and clearly state that it is not:
A Feature-Based Release: We will focus on hardening functionality
of existing features, versus introducing new ones,
End excerpt.
For an earlier version of some of the above, see:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__askubuntu.com_questions_1233_whats-2Dthe-2Dmeaning-2Dof-2Dversion-2Dnumbering-2Dof-2Dubuntu&d=DwICaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=YHVn3IEuYexuWWwLYQFegF7TqJbRDPX4ksA9J8RXARM&s=wBtsyjJjq9cADzvaI2s_dbWk2s23D7sXjoXTrQwNIJ0&e=
Unlike IBM RH that is forced under the GPL and Linux license to release
nominally buildable sources for the RHEL production distro, for
Canonical Ubuntu (at least until profiteering supplants stakeholder
business practices) the "versions" and "upgrades" mean installable
executables ("binaries"), of course with source provided. In part
because unlike EL, derived from IBM RH (a strictly for-profit entity
with public relations statements about community stakeholder issues
other than financial parameters optimisation), LTS derives from Debian
-- see
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Debian-5FSocial-5FContract&d=DwICaQ&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=gd8BzeSQcySVxr0gDWSEbN-P-pgDXkdyCtaMqdCgPPdW1cyL5RIpaIYrCn8C5x2A&m=YHVn3IEuYexuWWwLYQFegF7TqJbRDPX4ksA9J8RXARM&s=XSE0cgw_foccBTZVXJ7pOGgQIYLcGOA6wDU4YR10XNE&e=
for further details.
