We should use a LTS version for the ubuntu in the default.yaml

[saltbo]

I found we are using the non-LTS version for the Ubuntu.

For most people, they don't know this background:

LTS or ‘Long Term Support’ releases are published every two years in April. LTS releases are the ‘enterprise grade’ releases of Ubuntu and are used the most. An estimated 95% of all Ubuntu installations are LTS releases.

I viewed the commits, we often update the version of ubuntu when the ubuntu release a new version. For a new enduser for lima, they would get a default.yaml that contains a non-LTS version of ubuntu if they are using at the year 2021 or 2023.

So, I think we should use the LTS version in the default.yaml

lima/examples/default.yaml

Line 27 in 95324c9

- location: "https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/23.10/release-20240125/ubuntu-23.10-server-cloudimg-amd64.img"

https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle

[AkihiroSuda]

Devs often want the latest packages, so I'm not inclined to change the default to LTS.
Users may still use LTS with limactl create template://ubuntu-lts.

[saltbo]

Thanks for your reply.

I don't know other devs, I created the VM by default.yaml at 2 years ago. there's no change in the file https://github.com/saltbo/dotfiles/blob/master/.lima/default/lima.yaml. I hope it's stable, not the newest.

I don't know what most developers think. I just thought lima-vm should provide the LTS version in the default.

Of course, you must have a better understanding of what developers want. If you don't feel the need to use LTS, you can close this issue.

[afbjorklund]

There was a suggestion to switch from ubuntu to debian as the base for default, it would also mean an older OS

[madalinignisca]

I don't understand why Ubuntu must be default. What makes non-linux users think that the most popular Linux distribution for servers would be Ubuntu? As of 15 of system engineering, I'll say I've seen probably 70+% Debian, RedHat after, CentOS. But Ubuntu is popular on less enterprise setups, mostly used by beginners.

In the enterprise area, Debian and Oracle today dominate, Red Hat still keeps it's percentage, but Oracle grew after the CentOS thing. The rest is Ubuntu, with hopes it won't break.

[afbjorklund]

As far as I know, there is no such "must". But I still think it's a good default

Edit: well, except for snap

[jandubois]

I also don't really care; something must be the default, but any reasonable choice should work.

Ubuntu seems very popular for development, especially by people working on Kubernetes and CNCF projects, so using it as the default seems fine to me. Debian might be better as a non-corporate choice, but I'm not sure it matters.