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package maintainer
 is responsible for one or more packages, 
and ships new versions to the repositories for approval and, eventually, distribution 
to mirrors. Specific to Ubuntu's repositories, a group of developers is responsible 
for maintaining packages rather than just a single maintainer. Most of the time, the 
new version of a package is provided in order to patch a security vulnerability, but 
otherwise it contains no new features. With the majority of Ubuntu's packages being 
open source, anyone is able to look at the source code, find problems, and report 
issues. When vulnerabilities are found, the responsible team will review the claim 
and then release an updated version to correct it. This process happens very quickly, 
and I've seen severe vulnerabilities patched even on the same day that they were 
reported in some cases. Ubuntu developers are definitely on top of their game in 
terms of taking care of security issues.
New versions of packages are also sometimes feature updates, which are updates 
released to introduce new features not necessarily tied to a security vulnerability. This 
could be a new version of a desktop application such as Firefox or a server package such 
as MySQL. Most of the time, though, new versions of packages that are vastly different 
are held for the next Ubuntu release. The reason for this is that too much change can 
cause your server to not be as stable, and experience application or even entire OS-level 
crashes. Instead, known working and stable packages are preferred; however, given the 
fact that Ubuntu releases every six months, you don't have to wait very long.

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Chapter 3