Trying to understand the Fedora Release Schedule

Question

I've been running Fedora-13 for a few months now (after a disaster run-in with Ubuntu). I don't fully (or even minimally, really) understand the release cycle of the OS. I see, according to their website, they release "a new version of Fedora approximately every 6 months and provides updated packages (maintenance) to these releases for approximately 13 months."

If I'm on Fedora-13 now and want to keep pace with the latest and greatest version but I don't want to deal with the bugs from the cutting edge, when should I think about upgrading and what version should I consider upgrading to?

Answer 1

Fedora follows a relatively standard release schedule. Fedora 14 isn't full of bugs, it's considered stable. The Alpha, Beta and RC editions of the OS are considered not suitable for daily use due to the potential for bugs. In general Fedora pushes the envelope a little, and abandons their previous versions on a set, known schedule.

As a general rule, waiting a month or two after the gold release will let you gauge the general stability of the new edition (of any software). It will also let you see how the community reacts to any changes and generally allow for a preliminary round of any remaining glaring bugs to be fixed.

@aking1012 said go with CentOS for non-buggyness. Which is fair, but not really the question at hand. You could also go with NetBSD, which is well known for it's stability.