ROS Distribution
As described in the list of ROS distributions, there are several versions of ROS.
- In general, select an LTS (long term support) distribution. After the EOL (end of life), the system is not maintained.
- Currently Indigo and Kinetic are LTS.
- Some robots and sensors support a specific distribution of ROS only. Check which distributions are supported by your robots and sensors.
- Available ROS distributions depend on Ubuntu versions (distributions).
- Indigo: "ROS Indigo ONLY supports Saucy (13.10) and Trusty (14.04) for debian packages."
- Kinetic: "ROS Kinetic ONLY supports Wily (Ubuntu 15.10), Xenial (Ubuntu 16.04) and Jessie (Debian 8) for debian packages."
- cf. Ubuntu LTS: Trusty (14.04), Xenial (Ubuntu 16.04)