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If I use a fixed release distribution (Ubuntu/Mint) as opposed to a rolling release distro, exactly what is not updated, what is 'fixed' in place? I update the kernel whenever a new version becomes available and routinely use dist-upgrade over apt-get upgrade. What updates or features am I missing out on by not using a rolling release?

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This depends a lot on the distribution in question. For Ubuntu, the upgrades are governed by the Stable Release Updates policy. It's a long page, but I'll just quote section 2:

2. When

Stable release updates will, in general, only be issued in order to fix high-impact bugs. Examples of such bugs include:

  • Bugs which may, under realistic circumstances, directly cause a security vulnerability. These are done by the security team and are documented at SecurityTeam/UpdateProcedures.
  • Bugs which represent severe regressions from the previous release of Ubuntu. This includes packages which are totally unusable, like being uninstallable or crashing on startup.
  • Bugs which may, under realistic circumstances, directly cause a loss of user data
  • Bugs which do not fit under above categories, but (1) have an obviously safe patch and (2) affect an application rather than critical infrastructure packages (like X.org or the kernel).
  • For Long Term Support releases we regularly want to enable new hardware. Such changes are appropriate provided that we can ensure not to affect upgrades on existing hardware. For example, modaliases of newly introduced drivers must not overlap with previously shipped drivers.
  • New versions of commercial software in the Canonical partner archive.
  • FTBFS (Fails To Build From Source) can also be considered. Please note that in main the release process ensures that there are no binaries which are not built from a current source. Usually those bugs should only be SRUed in conjunction with another bug fix.

For new upstream versions of packages which provide new features, but don't fix critical bugs, a backport should be requested instead.

Exceptions like the kernel are documented in the section on Special Cases.

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