Proposal for a Yearly Stable Release Cycle for Educational Institutions

[Andrey Rakhmatullin]

Dear Debian Developers,
I am writing to propose the creation of a new Debian branch that offers a
stable release every year, as opposed to the current 5-year cycle. This
would be particularly beneficial for educational institutions, where a
balance between stability and up-to-date software is crucial.
A yearly stable release would allow schools to benefit from the latest
software and security updates without the long wait between releases. This
would also make it easier for schools to plan their IT infrastructure and
ensure that students have access to the latest tools and technologies.
I believe this could be achieved by creating a new branch that is based on
Debian Stable but receives more frequent updates, similar to how Ubuntu LTS
works but with a shorter cycle.
Thank you for considering this proposal. I look forward to your feedback
and discussion on this matter.

Unfortunately, while proposing is cheap, actually *doing* this is somewhat
harder. So unless you, and a suitable number of other people, are ready to
work on this, this won't happen.
(I'm intentionally not discussing the actual details, they never matter at
this stage)

[Henrik Ahlgren]

Post by Andrey Rakhmatullin
Unfortunately, while proposing is cheap, actually *doing* this
is somewhat harder. So unless you, and a suitable number of
other people, are ready to work on this, this won't happen.

A more realistic goal might be to increase the number of packages
in the backports repository. Regardless, I'm thrilled to witness
such enthusiasm for Debian from 10th-grade students. The project
greatly needs engagement from the next generation!

[Stephan Verbücheln]

In my opinion, the better solution would be to have more backports in
the stable release because people are mostly unhappy with outdated apps
and not with outdated essential core components.

This would probably not even require a policy change in Debian. But it
requires a lot of people with a lot of free time willing to do a lot of
work.

Firefox and Chromium show that this can be a lot of pain.

Regards
Stephan

[PICCA Frederic-Emmanuel]

Post by Stephan Verbücheln
In my opinion, the better solution would be to have more backports in
the stable release because people are mostly unhappy with outdated apps
and not with outdated essential core components.

What about the project to automatically build backports around janitor ?

What is the status of this service ?

Fred

[Gard Spreemann]

I am writing to propose the creation of a new Debian branch that
offers a stable release every year, as opposed to the current 5-year
cycle.

It's really great to see young people interested in Debian. I do need to
point out that the current cycle has been approximately 2 years long for
quite a while, not 5.


Best,
Gard

[Stephan Verbücheln]

I do need to point out that the current cycle has been approximately
2 years long for quite a while, not 5.

That is technically correct, but the freeze period is quite long as
well. As a result, the software is significantly older.

For example, the Bookworm freeze started in January 2023, so the
desktop apps are based on the Gnome release of September 2022. When
Trixie will be released, the apps in Bookworm will be almost three
years old. This is where average users feel the age.

Ubuntu schedules its LTS release always for April (normal releases
October), because Gnome is always releasing in March and September. So
for Ubuntu LTS users, the age of desktop apps is up to two years.

Fortunately, the Debian Gnome team has already included the current
release candidate (scheduled for March 19, 2025) for Trixie.

Regards

[Jeremy Stanley]

On 2025-03-05 10:40:38 +0000 (+0000), Stephan VerbÃŒcheln wrote:
[...]

Post by Stephan Verbücheln
Ubuntu schedules its LTS release always for April (normal releases
October), because Gnome is always releasing in March and September. So
for Ubuntu LTS users, the age of desktop apps is up to two years.

[...]

Not really. The LTS releases are in April of even-numbered years.
The April releases in odd-numbered years are short-term support just
like October releases.

There's also a several-month freeze after taking a snapshot of
packages from sid before the release occurs, so when an Ubuntu LTS
release happens the contemporary age of packages in the prior LTS is
well over two years by then.

[Stephan Verbücheln]

Post by Jeremy Stanley
There's also a several-month freeze after taking a snapshot of
packages from sid before the release occurs, so when an Ubuntu LTS
release happens the contemporary age of packages in the prior LTS is
well over two years by then.

No. In Ubuntu's freeze, they already include the beta/rc of the
upcoming Gnome, regardless of what is in Sid.

For example, Ubuntu 24.04 has Gnome 46, which was released in March
2024.

There have been few exceptions in the past when they did not want to
introduce too big changes in LTS, e.g. Wayland/Unity related stuff.

Regards

[Sarbjit Singh Sandhu]

Thanks for your suggestion I liked that but can you please help me that how
to use and install debian on approx 20 computers of my schools with the kde
plasma desktop and how to update them every 2 years and also making it user
friendly for the people who are going to use them

Post by Gard Spreemann

I am writing to propose the creation of a new Debian branch that
offers a stable release every year, as opposed to the current 5-year
cycle.

It's really great to see young people interested in Debian. I do need to
point out that the current cycle has been approximately 2 years long for
quite a while, not 5.
Best,
Gard

[Sarbjit Singh Sandhu]

Thanks for your advice.

Post by Sarbjit Singh Sandhu
Thanks for your suggestion I liked that but can you please help me that
how to use and install debian on approx 20 computers of my schools with
the kde plasma desktop and how to update them every 2 years and also
making it user friendly for the people who are going to use them

Dear Sarbjit,
Debian installation can be automated in various ways. Some of them are
Debian native, some are not. With these methods, you can create a custom
Debian system which installs the way you want, out of the box, with all
the customizations you need.
The first way is Debian Preseed [0]. You can create a "Preseed" file and
give options and add scripts to your installation to customize it.
Second way is FAI [1]. FAI is a "mass-deployment" tool which is aimed at
what you want to do. While FAI supports many distributions, Debian is
one of them. We used FAI to deploy a Debian derivative distribution that
we made country-wide. So it can certainly do 20 computers.
There are also other ways to mass-deploy Debian (like xCAT), but it'll
be an overkill for your case. So FAI and Preseed are your best choices.
Best Regards,
Hakan
[0]: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianInstaller/Preseed
[1]: https://fai-project.org/

Post by Sarbjit Singh Sandhu

I am writing to propose the creation of a new Debian branch that
offers a stable release every year, as opposed to the current

5-year

Post by Sarbjit Singh Sandhu

cycle.

It's really great to see young people interested in Debian. I do

need to

Post by Sarbjit Singh Sandhu
point out that the current cycle has been approximately 2 years long

for

Post by Sarbjit Singh Sandhu
quite a while, not 5.
Best,
Gard

[Andrey Rakhmatullin]

Post by Sarbjit Singh Sandhu
Thanks for your suggestion I liked that but can you please help me that how
to use and install debian on approx 20 computers of my schools with the kde
plasma desktop and how to update them every 2 years and also making it user
friendly for the people who are going to use them

debian-devel@ is a wrong place to ask user questions. The right one is
debian-***@.