the bi annual releases will continue to come and be supported. the lts
is significant for those that do not want to upgrade and risk new
instabilities.

I tend to upgrade as betas come out as stability all the time is
boring

At the moment every 6 months there will be a new version of Ubuntu,
for instance the next is 'Intrepid Ibex' 8.10 (due 2008, October).

But if you go into your 'system - administration - software
resources', then click on the 'update' tab, you may see that you are
only set up to receive upgrade information on LTS updates. So in
theory you can go the next 3 years (or whenever to the next LTS)
without being told you can upgrade, thus you will get software updates
but skip over OS upgrades.

I only have hardy running on one of my systems at the moment (a 3 year
old laptop), will not run on my 6 month old machine due to an ACPI
issue, but I believe the next build of Hardy is due July, hopefully
that will clean up all the little bugs that have popped up.

I thought that only security updates were carried out after a release.
You said
"but I believe the next build of Hardy is due July, hopefully
that will clean up all the little bugs that have popped up."

What you've written suggests more and i'd be grateful if you could
clarify this. One of the drawbacks [IMHO] of the release cycle is that
bugs don't get sorted out. I thought when i first started using ubuntu
was that the LTS updated software versions e.g. Firefox 1.5 to 2.0 (in
6.06) but NOT any new features e.g. ADD/REMOVE function in 7.04, IN
addition to any security updates but that didn't seem to be the case.

I read in the Ubuntu website/forums (if I had link I would post) the
Hardy Heron 'priority 1' would be out in July. I imagine that is more
for people like me where it just did not install in the first place.

> What you've written suggests more and i'd be grateful if you could
> clarify this. One of the drawbacks [IMHO] of the release cycle is that
> bugs don't get sorted out. I thought when i first started using ubuntu
> was that the LTS updated software versions e.g. Firefox 1.5 to 2.0 (in
> 6.06) but NOT any new features e.g. ADD/REMOVE function in 7.04, IN
> addition to any security updates but that didn't seem to be the case


I may have put my foot in it here, you are right, LTS promises
security updates, fixes & patches for 3 years. Not necessarily
anything else. I must confess I came to Ubuntu only at 7.04 so this is
my first LTS. Yes, I see that too, bugs do not really get dealt with
until the next release. IMHO I would prefer a yearly release with a 6
month beta testing period...my 2 cents ;-)

On the plus side, Mr Shuttleworth has said the next LTS will be along
in 10.04 if the linux distro vendors do not sync their release dates.