Phased Updates for Ubuntu 13.04
The Ubuntu project has announced that it will implement a new phased update process starting with the Ubuntu 13.04 release. The new process is designed to implement new updates gradually across the user base and monitor the behavior of each update, so changes that cause problems can be suspended or reversed before they affect the entire user base.
According to the new plan, which was announced in the blog of Ubuntu developer Brian Murray, users who employ Ubuntu's Update Manager for service updates will participate in the system by default. When a new update is available, it will initially go to only 10% of the users who update their systems through Update Manager. The Ubuntu Error Tracker will track the response. If an updated package receives a higher percentage of crash reports than the previous version, or if it receives reports about problems that weren't encountered with previous versions, the update is suspended. If no unexpected errors appear, the portion of users receiving the update will be incremented by 10% every six hours.
Users who prefer to have Update Manager install all available updates can opt out of the system through a configuration setting in /etc/apt/apt.conf. The new phased update feature will only apply to users who receive their updates through Update Manager. Users who install packages through apt-get or another package management tool will receive the latest versions.
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