Debian User Forums

Pardon my lack of knowledge as I'm quite new to Debian ecosystem. From what I understand, the testing release is "frozen" for four months before being declared as "stable". For example, in february 2017, the latest testing release (currently stretch) was frozen, and today stretch will be declared as "stable" debian release, right?

But would it make an iota of difference if I had started using the stretch right since february instead of today? What is the point of just putting these packages on hold for so long, do they ever change? Has it ever happened that a frozen component has ever changed due to a bug fix or feature upgrade or something?

From https://debian-handbook.info/browse/sta ... cycle.html

During the freeze period, development of the Testing distribution is blocked; no more automatic updates are allowed. Only the Release Managers are then authorized to change packages, according to their own criteria. The purpose is to prevent the appearance of new bugs by introducing new versions; only thoroughly examined updates are authorized when they correct significant bugs.

prahladyeri wrote:Pardon my lack of knowledge as I'm quite new to Debian ecosystem.

You claim to be "new," and yet you have a five year old user account. How curious.

Oh wait... you claim to be "new" in this thread, and yet in another thread, you call yourself a "power user." Even curiouser.

prahladyeri wrote:But would it make an iota of difference if I had started using the stretch right since february instead of today?

Yes.

Not surprisingly, the Debian release model is quite well documented.

https://wiki.debian.org/ReleaseGoals/NoRCBugs
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debi ... s#s-frozen
https://raphaelhertzog.com/2010/10/18/u ... e-process/
https://debian-handbook.info/browse/sta ... cycle.html

Is there some reason you didn't bother to read any of these documents before posting your "question"?

I call troll.