Glossary term: Rolling Release

An incremental system of software release management that does not employ major releases.

Most operating system distributions (“distros”) release a major release every couple of years with major new features, and then minor updates on a regular basis. For example, Windows is released that way (“Windows 10” vs “Windows 11”) as is Ubuntu Linux (“22.04 LTS Jammy Jellyfish” vs “24.04 LTS Noble Numbat”).

A distro using Rolling Releases, such as UBOS Linux, provides updates on a continuous basis without major jumps. This allows user Devices to be more up-to-date more of the time, and avoids often error-prone major upgrades.