The timing is a little unfortunate. 5.6 will be too late to make it in for 20.04, but 5.5 isn't an LTS kernel and 20.04 is an LTS distribution, so I understand not wanting to use 5.5.
Not really. Let's consider an alternate flexible version that stretches up to 2-3 months outside of emergencies. Versus a non-flexible version that stretches 0 months outside of emergencies.
If you compare the flexible version targeted at June, and the non-flexible version targeted at August, you'll find that they're making almost the exact same compromises.
Nothing ever stops you from using an earlier version if it's more stable. So both schedules get to chose from multiple versions. Maybe flexible chooses from 6 month old to 3 months in the future code, via delaying. But non-flexible can choose from 9 month old to 0 month old code. It works out the same, and the only difference is how you label it.
I'm kind of curious why Canonical don't simultaneously release a non-LTS release at the same time as the LTS release, to continue the flow of non-LTS releases. It seems like it'd make gearing up for the "LTS + 6mo" non-LTS release easier. Plus, then there'd be a clear non-LTS release to attribute any backported update packages to (that show up before they cut the "LTS + 6mo" non-LTS release.)
When I was involved we did LTS, and then half the distro team was focused on the LTS .1 release which happens 3 months later. The reality of software is that no amount of internal testing is the same as the amount of bug reports you get after the release. And, for an LTS as it's going to be around for a long time getting fixes in is more important - with a standard release you can choose to leave some that you'll resolve in the next six month release.
The reality of doing LTS, plus LTS .1 mean that the next standard release didn't get as much attention. So in reality the first six month release was often very rough, with a lot of new things in it that would be straightened out over the course of the entire cycle.
As someone mentions later in the thread Canonical started doing HWE releases, which means you can run a later kernel on the LTS. So I'm running 18.04.4 (I think) which has a HWE kernel that is newer than the one that originally shipped - not just security fixes but newer hardware compatibility.
First time I put Ubuntu on a laptop (2004 or so), there was an intel graphics regression so bad, I put windows back on it... This past October was the first time, in a very long time, Linux went on as my main OS. And running a new x570 board with an rx 5700xt has been painful until much later, when support got dramatically better.
Still have an issue with when I come back from the blank screen and login, the login screen won't go away... all the top/side bar shows, but it covers apps... I wind up ctrl+alt=f3 to login to a terminal and reboot. Should really figure out the commands to kill and restart gnome, but it's really been a pain. not sure if KDE might be better.
(sudo) pkill Xorg should likely do the trick, but check e.g. htop (hit F5 to get a tree view) for the name of the root process of the graphics session.
I have a newish all intel setup, and 5.4 crashes to the point of insanity. I gave up and installed 5.5 and it went away. It's a serious issue for an LTS release.
