> 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.
As mentioned elsewhere, the current cycle is not 5-year long.
And I think it's going to be difficult to convince Debian as a whole.
But another path might be to look for institutions which currently use
Debian, and encourage cooperation between them, maybe to the point of
offering an alternative distribution that closely tracks Debian but
better aligned with the needs of educational institutions.
AFAIK my department's IT uses Debian on all the end users's GNU/Linux
desktops. IIUC it's based on Debian sid which they freeze around late
spring, then test and tweak until it's deployed over the course of the
summer, after which only security fixes are installed during the rest of
the year (IIUC they self-build their own security-patched packages for
that). It's a non-trivial endeavor but it also gives them a lot
of flexibility. It might be difficult to share the fruits of such
efforts without losing too much of the benefits, but it's worth a try.
Stefan
