No, it's not
Several people have approached me (or I’ve stumbled upon their sites) asking me about something called Debian 5.0 Beta 2. It. Is. Not. That. Please read clearly the announcement for Debian Installer lenny beta 2 - Yes, I understand this reached many people who are not involved in Debian but are enthusiastic users nevertheless. In short: The only thing that reached the beta is the debian-installer program (usually called just d-i), the amazing piece of code that handles a Debian installation in your system. And yes, it is meant for wide testing and work. But please, do not take this as a preview of the new Debian release - it is not. If you install a system using this version of d-i, you will be tracking the Testing branch of Debian, and your system will be in a continuous state of flux. Yes, we do expect a freeze of Lenny in the next couple of weeks, after what it will be quite close to a Beta release (i.e. almost no new versions, no fresh software, just bug fixes). But hey - A Beta is supposed to be close to release quality. And if you look at the release-critical bugs affecting the Testing branch (green line), you will clearly see we have over 400 bugs to fix before Lenny is allowed to be called stable. And that’s only one of the criteria needed to reach Lenny - Glance over at the Debian Release Management page to quickly understand the nature of changes still to come. Oh, and of course - Even if it is not necessarily up-to-date, I have found the Wiki page created by Peter Eisentraut as an excellent place to start working whenever I have some free time: Lenny Release Goals. so… If you are not yet working towards making Debian the best distribution ever, and Lenny the best Debian release ever, you now know where we need your help ;-) (side note: d-i team, maybe the next announcement could use some words pointing out we are not doing a Debian beta program, just a d-i beta release?)
Comments
Julian Andres Klode 2008-06-11 09:52:53
Distrowatch
Same on Distrowatch, but they know it.
Wolfgang Lonien 2008-06-12 02:04:52
had that last time already
Even with the first Beta, some people misread that as “Lenny Beta One”; oh my…
Greetings from Bavaria, Germany, Wolfgang