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Thankfully, Ubuntu has come up with a system to address this problem, and it's one 
of the many things that set it apart from other distributions. Ubuntu features a set 
of updates known as the 
hardware enablement
 (
HWE
) stack, which is an exclusive 
feature to 
long-term support
 (
LTS
) releases. We discussed the difference between 
LTS and regular releases back in 
Chapter 1
, 
Deploying Ubuntu Server
. HWE updates 
are optional, but they add additional compatibility with newer hardware that 
was released after the current LTS version was made available. A new HWE stack 
typically includes a new kernel and driver packages. However, since drivers are 
often built right into the Linux kernel, you'll also get added support for things other 
than new video cards as well, such as newly released network cards.
HWE updates are generally made available from the second point release of an 
LTS version, and then again with each subsequent point release until the next LTS 
release becomes available. The new compatibility stack is 
backported
 from the 
most recent non-LTS release, which means that you get the same compatibility of 
the latest non-LTS release, while being able to stay on an LTS release. For example, 
when Ubuntu 18.04.2 was released on February 14, 2020, it contained the kernel and 
driver packages backported from Ubuntu 18.10. This means that you were able to 
take advantage of the newer hardware support of Ubuntu 18.10, while being able to 
remain on 18.04 LTS and benefit from the longer support cycle of the LTS release.
At the time of writing, Ubuntu 20.04.1 is the latest LTS release of Ubuntu, so 
hardware enablement hasn't been added yet. Historically, it's most likely the case 
that hardware enablement will play out in 20.04 LTS the same way as it has in 
previous releases. If that's the case, then we will have the updated packages made 
available once Ubuntu 20.04.2 is released.
Once the new HWE stack is made available, you can choose to install it or to remain 
on the original 20.04 kernel with no change. On the desktop version of Ubuntu, 
people that enjoy computer games can really benefit from these updates, as the 
new drivers enable better performance when it comes to video cards and support 
newer gaming hardware. When it comes to the scope of this book, the new hardware 
enablement benefits us a bit less than desktop users. The reason being, if your server 
is running fine with no issues, then there really isn't any reason to install the new 
hardware enablement unless the updated kernel contains new features you'd like to 
take advantage of.

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Managing Software Packages