no rolling release

Created by Manfred Hampl
Keywords:
updates
Last updated by:
Colin Watson

Ubuntu is not a rolling-release distribution. This means that package versions are usually not updated to higher versions than the ones initially provided with a certain Ubuntu release.
Newer package versions are provided only with newer Ubuntu releases.
There are exceptions to this rule, e.g. a limited list of packages like kernel, timezone information, Firefox, and in cases where severe weaknesses and/or bugs in a package justify an upgrade.
Please see https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates for details about the processes around upgrading packages in already-published Ubuntu releases, or https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuBackports for the process of backporting the newest version that is available in the development version of Ubuntu to an older release.