Debian 13 Freeze Begins in March, Debian 15 Codename Revealed

The upcoming Debian 13 “Trixie” release, expected to launch mid-year, is steadily coming together. As we informed you earlier, the new installer has already been introduced, and the release’s visual identity has been finalized.

So, now the Debian team has announced that the freezing process for Debian 13 “Trixie” will begin this March.

According to the updated roadmap, the Transition and Toolchain Freeze will start on March 15, 2025 (Milestone 1). Following this, a Soft Freeze is scheduled for April 15, 2025 (Milestone 2).

Next, a Hard Freeze for key packages and packages without autotests is set to take place on May 15, 2025 (Milestone 3). The date for the Full Freeze (Milestone 4) will be announced in due course.

If you’re not familiar with the Debian development model, let me quickly explain what each of the three phases involves. In Debian’s release process, “freezing” means gradually tightening the criteria for which packages (and which changes) are allowed to move from the “unstable” branch into “testing.” This leads up to the final release.

Soft Freeze

• Large changes and transitions are discouraged but not entirely blocked.
• Maintainers focus on polishing, fixing important bugs, and avoiding disruptive uploads.
• The overall pace of new uploads slows down to stabilize “testing.”

Hard Freeze

• Allowed changes become more restricted—only targeted bug fixes or very small changes get through.
• Many uploads now require explicit approval (an “unblock”) by the Release Team.
• The goal is to ensure release-critical issues are fixed without introducing new problems.

Full Freeze

• Essentially, there are no automatic migrations—every change needs a manual Release Team review.
• Only release-critical or security-related fixes are typically allowed.
• This final, tightly controlled phase ensures that Debian’s “testing” is in a fully stable state before the official final release.

Now, to the something that always excites distribution enthusiasts: naming future releases. In light of this, the Debian team has also revealed that the release following 13 ‘Trixie’ and 14 ‘Forky’ (expected in mid-2027) will be called Debian 15 ‘Duke.’

As expected, continuing the tradition, the Debian releases are once again named after characters from the Toy Story movie. In light of this, Duke Caboom (voiced by Keanu Reeves) is a character from Toy Story 4 – a charming Canadian stuntman known for his flashy personality, confidence, and motorcycle stunts.

If we follow the typical Debian release schedule, which introduces a new major version every two years, it’s reasonable to estimate that Debian 15 ‘Duke’ could arrive sometime in 2029. That said, given how far away that is, at the moment, this timeline is more of an educated guess than a certainty.

For more information, see the announcement in Debian’s mailing list.