Mozilla is taking a page out of the Ubuntu playbook and promising to offer long-term support for selected versions of its software. The web browser maker recently moved to a rapid release schedule with a new version of Firefox coming out every six weeks.
Often the updates are not dramatically different from earlier versions, but new features, security updates, and other improvements can now be rolled out faster. But that’s not necessarily a good thing if you’re a business or other institution that really needs to be able to support software that’s not constantly changing.
So Mozilla has announced it will adopt an Extended Support Release schedule, and once each year the company will launch an ESR version of the browser.
ESR versions will still get regular security updates, but it won’t receive any major updates that can affect web performance or add-ons.
This is similar to the model Canonical uses for its Ubuntu Linux operating system. The company releases a new version of Ubuntu every six months like clockwork. But every 2 years Canonical offers an Ubuntu LTS (Long Term Support) release which allows companies to install software and know that it will be supported fora number of years.
via Slashdot
Ubuntu LTS is every two years, actually: 8.04, 10.04, 12.04. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LTS.