[GLLUG] Ubuntu versus Debian (was: Re: GLLUG still alive?)

[Tim Woodall]

On Wed, 14 Aug 2024, Alan Pope via GLLUG wrote:

> It's not that they are holding back fixes to packages that were previously
> available. They simply were not available. Ubuntu Pro is providing updates
> to packages that previously were not in scope, and so didn't happen.
> 
> Unfortunately, the amount of work to update packages and backport fixes far
> exceeds the number of open source community members to maintain them. Same
> as many open source projects these days.
> 
> What's changed is Canonical are offering this (backporting selected fixes)
> as a paid service to their enterprise customers. Supporting those paying
> customers by backporting fixes they would never have had before. Canonical
> is enabling customers to accelerate and focus development effort on
> packages Canonical would previously not have touched. Like most software
> companies, if you pay, you get attention. This isn't exactly new.
> 
> They then make that paid work available for free to the Ubuntu community if
> they enable Ubuntu Pro.
>

Isn't this the Freexian elts model for Debian?

AFAIAA, anybody can get the fixed packages. (I haven't tried). The
paying customers get to decide which packages get fixes.

Tim.