by 
The UBports Foundation announced that they plan to switch to a fixed-release model for future OTA (Over-the-Air) updates for their Ubuntu Touch mobile operating system.
Almost a year ago, the UBports Foundation released the first Ubuntu Touch OTA update based on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, after years of work to migrate from the Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) series base.
This move came with lots of benefits for Ubuntu Touch users, but it also introduced some problems like the fact that they can’t release individual fixes for bugs or security issues without releasing all the other changes that landed in their code base or the fact that they have to freeze the development when a new OTA rolls out.
To address these problems introduced by the rebase from Ubuntu 16.04 to Ubuntu 20.04, on which the current Ubuntu Touch builds are based, the UBports Foundation came up with a plan to switch to a fixed-release model when they’ll rebase Ubuntu Touch to the upcoming Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) release.
This change won’t affect Ubuntu Touch users in any way. In fact, switching to a fixed-release model will let UBports Foundation deliver bug and security fixes faster than before for a more stable and reliable Ubuntu Touch experience.
The new Ubuntu Touch release model will use the <year>.<month>.<minor> format, where the <year> and <month> version strings will be numbered as the expected year and month of the respective release, and the <minor> version string will start from 0 (e.g. 24.6.0) with minor releases incrementing it by 1.
The UBports Foundation also said that they plan to release a major feature update of Ubuntu Touch every six months and minor releases every two months. They also said that each major feature update will be supported for about a month after the next major feature update is released.
Image credits: UBports Foundation (edited by Marius Nestor)
Last updated 3 months ago
