Comment 65 for bug 267376

Andrew Conkling: I don't know if that's the reason people (mostly) prefer Ubuntu - but I agree that the time-line is important.

bastafidli: I was aware you're talking about a different set of users; and you are right in saying that the "tinkering" users (like you and I) are the ones that DO care and are usually passionate. The point I was trying to make is simply that Ubuntu has another set of users that are just as important as us "passionate" users, and definitely did not mean to hint that one group is more important than the other - only that this should be judged on a case-by-case basis, and in this case - I humbly disagree with you and believe Canonical made the right choice, because the release dates were so close.

I think it all boils down to who takes responsibility on bugs: Canonical consider OOo as an intrinsic part of Ubuntu - one that they are taking quality responsibility for, and therefor want to assure that the code is stable. (I know that ultimately the upstream has responsibility, but the "simple" users see "that office suite that came with Ubuntu", not "OOo", despite the splash screen...)

IF they were to treat OOo as just another product, that someone else provides and is responsible for (like, say, iTunes) the issue would not come up. But since it is considered as a critical part of the OS, they want to make sure that what ships with it is the most stable version, not the most recent one.