Different distributions have different approaches to releases. For example, Debian simultaneously maintains multiple releases (branches). The “stable” branch is recommended for production use, “testing” for more recent software versions. Every two years or so, the branches “shift” (i.e. the previous “testing” becomes the new “stable”, and so on) and users are asked to upgrade to the next release.
Fedora releases aren’t really branched like Debian. Instead, they make a new release (with potentially major changes for an upgrade) every half a year, and maintain old releases for 13 months. You generally start with the newest release, and periodically upgrade.
Arch Linux follows a rolling release model instead. There is just one branch that all Arch users use, and releases are made periodically only for the purpose of installation media. Major upgrades are done in-place (and I have to say, they don’t always go well).
Now, Gentoo is something of a hybrid, as it combines the best of both worlds. It is a rolling release distribution with a single shared repository that is available to all users. However, within this repository we use a keywording system to provide a choice between stable and testing packages, to facilitate both production and development systems (with some extra flexibility), and versioned profiles to tackle major lock-step upgrades.
Continue reading “Gentoo: profiles and keywords rather than releases”