Re: LTS versions - confusion

[Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org>]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 10:18:54AM -0400, Tanstaafl wrote:
> I'm a former Gentoo user, and really appreciated the rolling release
> aspect, since it meant no huge jumps between LTS releases with other
> distros.
> 
> So... what is the current LTS version and when is its EOL, and when will
> the next one be released, and what will be its EOL?

Debian doesn't have "LTS versions" in the way you're thinking.  Every
Debian release goes through the same lifecycle:

1) Prior to release, a given version undergoes a period as "testing".
   Users are free to install it and play around with it and report
   bugs.

2) After a while of that, a release date is chosen.  The release goes
   into "freeze" (varying stages, actually), and no new stuff is allowed
   in.  Bugs are fixed, or if a package can't be fixed up, it's
   removed.

3) When the release date arrives, the version goes from "testing" to
   "stable".  Celebrations happen, etc.

4) During its time as "stable", a release gets no new versions of software
   (except in special situations), and no bug fixes other than security
   or major bugs.

5) When a new stable release happens, the previous release becomes
   "oldstable".  It still receives security bug fix support for a year.

6) After that year, the release goes into "long-term support" mode, and
   received security bug fix support from a different team.  The LTS
   team may choose to support only server packages, not desktop packages.

7) After about 2 years of LTS support, the release reached end of life,
   and is no longer officially supported.