Interview: Steve McIntyre of Debian

"In the past, we didn't mention potential release dates at all and we'd simply aim to release when certain goals had been met. For the last two release cycles, we have instead tried to pick a target release window (18-24 months from the previous release) and some goals that should fit that target date. In each of those releases (Etch and Lenny), I'm happy that we have hit the target with both taking 22 months. It would be nice to be closer to the beginning of that window, but it's difficult to guarantee that we'll get there every time when we're working as volunteers.

"In terms of the time between releases, that is simply a compromise. It's short enough that users should be able to install and run Debian on their hardware, and we have the "and a half" updates with new kernel and X drivers to help with that. But for our users who want to install Debian on their servers and not be bothered with constant upgrades, 18-24 months is a reasonable choice for them too. Supporting more frequent releases for the same total length of time would be very difficult for us, simply due to the work involved."

Complete Story

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