A recent article that has gotten a lot of attention argues that the upcoming release of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron, could be “the release that either makes or breaks the project.” I disagree that Hardy Heron could either make or break the project, or, for that matter, that any release will “make or break” the project.

While each release brings new features, improvements, and bugfixes, new major “wow” (no, not “Vista wow”) features are rare (but not unheard of) and even if a particular release introduced many “wow” features, users would not just suddenly flock to the project.

Because of the short length of time between releases, only six months, there is simply not enough time for any single release to make or break the project. Instead of Ubuntu being “made” by a single release, it would be “made” by a stream of steady improvements.