As Etch progresses, Debian's release manager talks turkey

Release managers are not mentioned in the Debian Constitution, yet few positions in Debian are more influential, especially in the final stages of preparation for a release. Recently, Andreas Barth, who shares the release manager position with Steve Langasek, took time from his efforts coordinating the Etch release – tentatively scheduled for early December – to talk about the stages in the release process, the goals for the upcoming release, and the short- and long-range problems that he faces in his role. Contrary to some predictions of disaster, he presents a picture of a distribution that is continuing to evolve without sacrificing the openness for which it is often admired.

More @ Linux.com

I’m running Etch right now, and I’m very happy with how the release is shaping up. It’s also been rock-solid so far, but then again I’ve never seen a stability problem in Debian’s Testing branch before.

What’s great about Debian is that theres no corporate pressure to release it on time, it will be released when its ready.

Yep, and there’s nothing to prevent you from using it before the official release, either.