Why the Project Keeps a Narrow Support Matrix

This explanation provides the rationale behind the project’s deliberate focus on a small set of Ubuntu releases and provider targets.

The Goal

The primary objective is to publish a maintained set of boxes that remain predictable and reliable for consumers, rather than attempting to cover every distribution and provider.

Benefits of a Narrow Scope

A smaller support matrix enables the project to:

• Rebuild boxes consistently and reliably.
• Maintain consistent provisioning behavior across providers.
• Validate generated artifacts with greater accuracy.
• Publish metadata and checksums with minimal operational drift.

What This Means for Users

For consumers, the narrow scope ensures:

• Predictable naming schemes for boxes.
• Consistent metadata layouts across distributions.
• Explicit provider support.
• Clear separation of UTM support from default builds (e.g., libvirt and virtualbox).

This trade-off prioritizes well-defined, predictable artifacts over broader but less maintainable coverage.