There is certainly no hard and fast rule. In the JDK case, in terms of language design, my observation is that with Brian Goetz in charge, it doesn't matter too

There is certainly no hard and fast rule. In the JDK case, in terms of language design, my observation is that with Brian Goetz in charge, it doesn't matter too much whether it was the slow release cycle back in the pre-9 days, or the shorter one from JDK 9 onward -- whenever a new feature is introduced, all kinds of compatibilities are being maintained at all costs. (Except Project Jigsaw of course, but I'd like to think that he got overruled by his boss) As for bugs, I will just quote Gil Tene from https://www.theserverside.com/opinion/Dont-ever-put-a-non-Java-LTS-release-into-production https://www.theserverside.com/opinion/Dont-ever-put-a-non-Ja... > Play with them on your laptop, but don't use a single feature, and wait for the LTS. Personally I think the LTS model is great. Features get rolled out as soon as they are ready, and then get stabilized after being used by early adopters. Meanwhile, production can stay on LTS and continue to get just the necessary fixes.