From: "Rich Gauszka" 


"Randall Parker"

wrote in message news:4592e2b2{at}w3.nls.net...
> Does anyone here choose a distro based on your expectation of how long
> you'll be able to get security updates without having to do a major
> version upgrade?
>
> For example, Fedora just dropped support for Fedora Core 4. Fedora Core 5
> came out in March 2006 and Fedora Core 6 came out in October 2006.
> Anything you installed before March 2006 isn't going to get fixes for
> security patches if you were getting them from the Fedora project.
>
> I'd rather be able to install a Linux release and then for years afterward
> download and install updates periodically without having to burn a DVD to
> do a major upgrade.
>
> So how do other free distros compare to Fedora on this score? Does Ubuntu
> or Kbuntu do a better job of this? How about Debian?

just a few

Red Hat Enterprise has a support policy like that

http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/errata/

Phase 3: Maintenance
Start Date: General Availability
End Date: 4 Years from end of Deployment (7 years from General
Availability) Description: During the Maintenance phase, only Security
errata and select mission critical bug fixes will be released for the
Enterprise products.

Madriva's appears somewhat short
http://www.mandriva.com/security/productlifetime

Ubuntu's are listed in their wiki

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/
  a.. EdgyEft - Version 6.10. Released October 26, 2006. Supported until
April 2008.

  b.. DapperDrake - Version 6.06. Released June 1, 2006. Supported until
June 1, 2009.

  c.. BreezyBadger - Version 5.10. Previous stable release. Supported until
April 2007. (BugTracking)

  d.. HoaryHedgehog - Version 5.04. The second stable release; unsupported
as of October 2006. (BugTracking)

  e.. WartyWarthog - Version 4.10. The first release; unsupported as of
April 2006. (BugTracking)

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