Debian's long-term support experiment
Well Supported
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The Debian project is extending its famous development process to offer long-term support.
Debian Linux, which calls itself "The Universal Operating System," is a huge and popular Linux variant. Debian was one of the first Linux distributions, and it remains one of the largest, with over 43,000 software packages. Unlike many other leading Linux distros, Debian is not backed directly by a company, and it is managed democratically by the many volunteers who populate the Debian mailing list.
Despite its reputation as an all-free, counter-cultural collection for hackers, Debian is also quite stable and reliable, which makes it a viable option for many corporate networks. But after many years of Linux in the enterprise, admins have a pretty clear idea of what they want: a system that will operate for several years without requiring an upgrade. Rolling out a new operating system in the enterprise can take many months, and the process is quite complex and prone to complications. Better to make such events as infrequent as possible.
In 2014, the Debian developers woke up and realized the recent trend for Long-Term-Support (LTS) releases had left them behind. Because Debian is not backed by a company that can make money on selling support contracts (like SUSE, Red Hat, and Canonical), they had never gotten around to implementing some form of long-term support.
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