Ubuntu Derivative Alpha Releases Are Back To Being Questioned

While Ubuntu itself hasn't participated in the alpha releases now for a few years in favor of focusing on high-quality daily ISOs, Ubuntu derivatives such as Kubuntu and Xubuntu have long been pushing out alpha releases to help with testing by the community. However, for lack of people stepping up to manage these releases, it's looking like they may not happen or with fewer alpha releases.

Steve Langasek of Canonical started a discussion thread today entitled Is a 16.04 alpha 2 needed? In there he raises the question of whether Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Alpha 2 releases will come this week or not. He's asking whether other Ubuntu flavors are still finding these releases useful, particularly as no one managed to step up for managing the alpha two release.

Lubuntu and Ubuntu MATE are interested in a *buntu 16.04 Alpha 2. Xubuntu and Kubuntu, meanwhile, aren't interested/able in participating this week. While Kubuntu didn't have a 16.04 Alpha 1 release either, one of their developers wrote, "we won't manage to land anything worth testing this week."

The developers behind these different Ubuntu flavors though did reiterate they are interested in seeing alpha releases continue and it helps them with QA from the community. They also further reinforced that much of the automated daily testing done is Ubuntu-specific and of not too much help to these derivatives outside of the common code-paths / areas for testing.

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is set to be officially released on 21 April.