OSNews

> Can someone please comment as to what the need
> to standarize beyond Sarge is?

Yes,
Ubuntu follows the release cycle of Gnome which is every 6 months, DCC follows the release
cycle of LSB which is every 18 months and Debian have no set release cycle.

So Ubuntu bases it's core on Debian sid (unstable) and the DCC core is based on Debian sarge (the current stable version) and etch (the next stable version, which is working on LSB 3.0 compliance).

For any distribution to maintain a core for 18 months without breaking binary compatibility for neither native applications or LSB applications it takes a lot of effort. (e.g. backporting the kernel and glibc in order to take advantage of security updates and new drivers)

The DCC Alliance has joined in this effort and develop their core together, also achieving binary compatibility with each other. So simply put they have standardized amongst each other because they have a common goal.

If for instance Ubuntu and a few other distributions based on Debian which follows the release cycle of Gnome wanted to, they could also standardize on a common core between them.

So to be fair if it's not Debian's common core it is just a Debian derived common core.

On a sidenote though, it is possible for a distribution using the DCC to be just as bleeding edge as Ubuntu. All they have to do is backport all the good stuff to the DCC and release every 6 months (using the same updated core for three consecutive releases).

/Magnus