Your Heroku applications run on top of a curated stack, containing the operating system and other components needed at runtime. We maintain the stack - updating the OS, the libraries, and ensuring that known security issues are resolved, so that you can focus on writing code.

Today we're announcing the general availability of Heroku-16, our curated stack based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. In addition to a new base operating system, Heroku-16 is updated with the latest libraries. If you’re a Ruby or Python developer, Heroku-16 includes 15% more development headers at build time, making it easier to compile native packages on Heroku. Finally, Heroku-16 offers a better local development...

Heroku is fully behind Ruby 1.9.2 as the new gold standard for production Ruby apps. Over the past few months, we’ve seen more and more developers move to the Bamboo 1.9.2 stack. It’s fast, stable, and increasingly sees excellent support throughout the community.

In February, we said that we’d be reviewing the state of 1.9.2 support with the eventual goal of switching the default for new Ruby apps on Heroku from 1.8.7 to 1.9.2. Today, we’re announcing the date of that switchover.

As of June 1st, 2011, all new Ruby applications on Heroku will be run on Ruby 1.9.2 by default. (Existing applications won’t be affected, and you can always create a new application...