Debian 6.0 Squeeze behind schedule

The Debian release team are sounding the alarm: With only one month left before the planned release freeze, the number of critical bugs in Debian 6.0 Squeeze is still far too high to freeze development and create the next stable version of Debian. As a result, it has become unlikely that Squeeze will be released this summer as scheduled.

The release team are calling on package maintainers and program developers to fix critical bugs as soon as possible – otherwise they threaten to simply remove their code from Debian's testing development branch to avoid the completion of Squeeze being delayed any further. Team member Marc Brockschmidt writes that the team has also asked people to volunteer to help with the merging of patches and updates as there appears to be a staff shortage in this area.

In mid 2009, the Debian project decided to adopt fixed cycles for stable releases rather than releasing a new version when the developers consider it ready. Debian 6.0 Squeeze was to be the first distribution released under the new schedule. Ubuntu founder and former CEO Mark Shuttleworth had suggested synchronising the release cycles of Debian Squeeze with those of the Debian-based Ubuntu 10.04, which prompted the Debian developers to schedule the release of Squeeze for spring 2010. However, it became clear in November 2009 that Squeeze would, at the earliest, be completed in summer 2010 – provided the code freeze took place in March. The added delay will probably postpone the release of Squeeze until autumn – or possibly even further.

See also:

• Debian 5.0 "Lenny" update released, a report from The H.
• Debian 4.0 security support ends soon, a report from The H.

(crve)