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Backports are virtually useless. http://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial-backports/allpackages

PPAs are a very good idea but they are almost always managed by third parties and I don't trust them.

Also, upgrading the system every six months is annoying and fails too often. A rolling release decreases the friction of doing a major upgrade.

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Only if you upgrade regularly. If you upgrade infrequently, rolling releases have a habit of totally hosing your system once you've waited too long and finally pull the trigger.

I've had really good luck with the last few major dist upgrades, for whatever that's worth. About half an hour of downloading and installing packages, a reboot, and poof, you're on the next major release.

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