Lets just say I download and install the latest ubuntu 9.04 . This will ship with the latest stable kernel and Xorg, right ?
The kernel, xorg and other core components will be of a different version on a 6 month old ubuntu.

So, is there a distro in which the core components xorg, kernel aren't updated every so often ? And one can use a package manager to install the latest applications?
In short Is there a distro in which the latest packages (of everyday application) can be installed using a package manager, without having to update the 'system'/core components like drivers,xorg,kernel ??]


My understanding is that once a new version of a distribution is released , which happens at least once a year , the old version's package repository isn't updated anymore.


I have a genuine reason for asking this.
latest catalyst drivers are incompatible with my card, and older ati drivers are incompatible with the latest xorg!!
so one needs distro that uses an older xorg

I don't know about that specific problem, but Ubuntu offers “Long Term Support” versions.

With the Long Term Support (LTS) version you get three years support on the desktop, and five years on the server.

^ LTS only offers security updates . The package repository gets obsolete after 6 months.. I think

I'm not sure it it works with the *buntus but with Debian you can "pin" packages to keep from upgrading.

For instance, you may have just upgraded your Debian distribution to 5.0, but want to continue with the version of a certain package from Debian 4.0... You can "pin" the version you have installed so that it will not be upgraded.

Thanks for the comment! I'll explore this option furthur.

*buntus can pin packages