I agree that they should provide optionally new versions of LibreOffice, Gimp, and similar software for LTS releases. But I think it's highly unrealistic that t

I agree that they should provide optionally new versions of LibreOffice, Gimp, and similar software for LTS releases. But I think it's highly unrealistic that this will include more than a few selected software packages. It takes probably quite some effort because Linux software is not only constantly changing but so are the dependencies. At some point it simply is not possible to use new software with an old plumbing. E.g. some package might depend on a newer version of gnome-libs which depend on a new version of something in the plumbing layer. As far as I see it the non-LTS releases are just the beta tests for the next LTS release. But somehow Canonical does not seem to fully agree with that. If I remember correctly the biggest issue with PA was that it was introduced in an LTS release. They should have probably waited one release and use the 4 releases to get it right. btw. PPAs and backports can help you if you want new versions in older releases.