16.1. Upcoming Developments
Weeks (or months) before a new version of Debian is released, the Release Manager picks the codename for the next version. Now that Debian version 7 is out, the developers are already busy working on the next version, codenamed Jessie…
There's no official list of planned changes, and Debian never makes promises relating to technical goals of the coming versions. However, a few development trends can already be noted, and we can try some bets on what might happen (or not).
The default “init” process (sysvinit) will hopefully be replaced by a more modern system such as upstart or systemd. Some ports will be gone: s390 has been superseded by s390x, sparc and ia64 might follow as they suffer from multiple problems (lack of recent hardware, lack of Debian porters, lack of upstream support, etc.). dpkg will gain a --verify command that renders debsums mostly obsolete.
Of course, all the main software suites will have had a major release. Apache 2.4 (or newer) will have a strong impact on deployed websites as many configuration files will have to be updated. The Linux kernel is likely to have a much improved container support (with user namespaces, paving the path towards more secure containers). And the latest version of the various desktops will bring better usability and new features. GNOME 3 will be much more polished and the fans of the good old GNOME 2 will be pleased with the inclusion of
MATE in Debian.
