The developers are making a push to fix all the bugs

Nov 10, 2014 08:54 GMT  ·  By

Debian 8.0 "Jessie" has been in the works for quite some time and it has just entered feature freeze. Now, the Debian project leader is pushing for a release of the new operating system in under 12 weeks.

Historically, the development times for new Debian versions has been getting shorter. More people are now working on the project and things get fixed more quickly than they used to. Also, there is no precise schedule for the final launch and developers have always taken their time. This might not be the best policy for users, who want to know when the distribution becomes available, but it makes for a very stable operating system.

If this happens and Debian 8.0 arrives in just 12 weeks, it would be the fastest launch made so far and users won't have to wait up to six months after feature freeze. It's possible that the developers will try to seize this opportunity and make everyone happy with an early release, although users should be reserved in their expectations.

Debian 8.0 "Jessie" might arrive sooner than you think

Until now, Debian developers usually landed the stable version of the distribution in about 5 to 6 months after it hit feature freeze, but that time would be cut by about two months if the plan to launch it before the FOSDEM conference, which is only 12 weeks away, works.

"Jessie was frozen on November 5th, as planned. At the time of the freeze, 310 RC bugs remained to be fixed. This is quite an achievement from the project as a whole, and the Release Team specifically. First, we froze on the date announced more than a year ago, and the freeze seems to have been well respected by all maintainers."

"Second, with 310 RC bugs at the time of the freeze, we are probably breaking a record for all recent Debian releases (though I don't have hard numbers for that). Could we have the shorter Debian freeze ever? (wheezy: 44 weeks; squeeze: 26 weeks; lenny: 28 weeks; etch: 17 weeks). Given that FOSDEM is 12 weeks away, could we even release before FOSDEM, and have a big party there to celebrate?" says Lucas Nussbaum on his blog.

Even if he is the project's leader, he cannot control what the developers are doing. All that’s left for him to do is give a rallying cry to motivate people to come through. It remains to be seen if he is successful. In the meantime, if you want to help out, you can download Debian 8.0 Beta 2 and install it. You might be able to find some of the issues yourself and contribute to a better release by reporting them.

Debian 8.0 "Jessie" Beta 2 (7 Images)

Debian "Jessie" desktop
Debian "Jessie" appsDebian "Jessie" with GNOME 3.14
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