Releases and support: LTS, current, and rolling

Picking your vendor might seem like it gets you everything that you need to get started on your Linux deployment, but it does not. We still have to consider release management as part of our distribution decision plan.

A release model or release regime is an approach to how the distribution will update itself. There are three standard models followed by essentially all vendors. These are rolling releases, short term releases, and long-term releases.

Not all vendors provide all the different models. And each vendor approaches support differently. We will do our best to make useful generalizations, but when you make your decision you will need to consider the current strategies available from your prospective vendors as well as considering the quality of the support that they provide.

There is a second factor that is often confused with the release model, and that is the support period. The two are roughly related, but a vendor...