Re: [Evolution] 3.16.3 on Ubuntu 15.10

[Pete Biggs <pete biggs org uk>]

> Could you please ask for building recent Evolution versions for ubuntu
> 14.04 as well? - My argument would be, that it doesnt make much sense to
> declare a OS version as "long term support" - and then not to provide
> updates for really crucial software.

There's a difference between updates and upgrades.  

***Disclaimer: I don't know the policies for Ubuntu (LTS or any other
version).***

RHEL - i.e. I presume what an Ubuntu LTS version is trying to be like -
sticks with a major version of a piece of software for the lifetime of
the OS - which is about 10 years.  The reasoning behind this is
stability and predictability.  If a company is investing resources in
either using RHEL or producing software for it, then they need to know
that their investment is going to have some longevity and the chance to
show benefits.  The critical thing is that bug fixes are back-ported
(if appropriate) from more recent versions, but the features of the
software itself are kept stable.

It's particularly critical for something like Evolution - in order to
upgrade Evolution, you basically need to update the whole of the Gnome
infrastructure.  Updating Gnome, the default desktop, will have knock
-on effects on other software and on the user experience necessitating
re-writing software, re-writing training manuals, re-training staff and
so on.

Using an enterprise class OS comes with the benefits of stability both
in terms of features and against crashes; but you have to weigh against
it the fact that you don't get the most recent versions of
applications.

If you want the most recent versions of software, use a distro that
provides them.

P.