I’ve always admired the way how a large-scale community-developed open-source project — Ubuntu — can deliver new releases with the predictability and regularity of high-quality clockwork. Every six months, a new version comes out with every fourth one getting polished to LTS (Long Term Support) quality.

Mark Shuttleworth, the SABFDL of Ubuntu, has shared his views and thoughts about why and how to manage the release cycle of complex software products. If you’re interested in the topic, then it’s a good read even if you don’t happen to share his preference to free and open source software.