Long term stable distributions are built around the idea that the user should never have to worry about an update breaking their code/software, so all tool chain versions are frozen at release with only security patches and bug fixes back ported. To relate this to the Windows world, imagine if Windows 10 didn't do feature upgrades (like older versions of Windows) and shipped with VS2015 out of the box. You would not expect that Microsoft would suddenly automatically upgrade VS when VS "15" comes out. Instead you would expect to have to opt in to the upgrade. Even if you do think the tool chain should update automatically, I'm sure one would be singing a different tune if the upgrade happened just before some major deadline.Eruanna wrote:It's a bit curious, though, why such individual packages never updated.
This kind of falls apart for user desktop oriented software so distros like Ubuntu make exceptions for some programs like web browsers, but it's a blurry line on what should and should not get updated throughout the support life cycle. I personally think that Ubuntu is a little too conservative still, but I don't have a problem with subscribing to third party repositories for software I care about getting updates for like LibreOffice. In any case though, this is pretty much the basis for the endless debate over rolling release vs long term stable release distros. Everyone has a different idea on how software should get updated, and there's not really an objectively correct answer.