14 DAY TRIAL // The long-anticipated Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" operating system now has a release date, as one of the team members announced a few moments ago that the distribution is slated for release on June 17, 2017.
This is great news for fans of the Debian GNU/Linux operating system as they will finally be able to upgrade their Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" installations to the Stretch branch, which will be promoted to the stable channel on Saturday, June 17. That's only three weeks from the moment of writing this article.
But, until then, the release team needs to patch the remaining bugs, various crashes and memory leaks, incorporate all the latest security fixes, and address the regressions from the Debian GNU/Linux 8 "Jessie" series. They also plan on making the upgrade path from Jessie to Stretch as smooth as possible.
"We plan to release on 2017-06-17. If you want to celebrate it, please consider attending a Debian release party, or hosting your own! See https://wiki.debian.org/ReleasePartyStretch for more information," said Niels Thykier in the mailing list announcement, which you need to read if you're involved in the development process.
Powered by the Linux 4.9 LTS kernel series
Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" will include some of the latest GNU/Linux technologies and Open Source applications. The distro is powered by the long-term supported Linux 4.9 kernel series and offers users access to components like GCC 6.3.0, X.Org Server 1.19.2, Mesa 13.0.6, and systemd 232.
It also looks like it will include a bunch of new tools targeted at people interested in digital forensics, and many other goodies that you'll need to discover yourself. Make sure that you mark your calendars for June 17, when you'll be able to download the final release of Debian GNU/Linux 9 "Stretch" to install it on your PCs.