Colin Percival, the leader of the team responsible for the preparation of releases FreeBSD, announced a change in the processes of formation and support of issues. Starting from the FreeBSD 15 branch, scheduled for the end of 2025, the time of supporting significant branches after the formation of the first release (15.0) will be reduced from 5 to 4 years. Additionally, new significant branches will be formed once every two years.
Intermediate issues (15.1, 15.2, 15.3) will be developed as part of a fixed development cycle that includes releasing new versions in one branch approximately every 6 months, instead of once a year as before. With the support of two different significant branches simultaneously, new intermediate issues will be released every 3 months (15.4, 16.1, 15.5, 16.2, etc.), except for the preparation of the initial releases of new significant branches, which will have a 6-month gap in releases.
Recent optimization of the collaboration between teams responsible for the releases and development has allowed the process of preparing releases to reduce to 3 beta versions and one release candidate, compared to previous 3-4 beta versions and 3-6 candidates. With this streamlined development approach, 3 months will be sufficient to prepare intermediate releases. This shortened release cycle aims to deliver new features to users more quickly and alleviate the workload in preparing each issue. The predictable development model will simplify user planning for transitioning to new releases, with the possibility of release delays if critical issues arise.
A new schedule for the formation and support of FreeBSD issues:
- 13.3: Mar 2024 – Dec 2024
- 14.1: Jun 2024 – Mar 2025
- 13.4: Sep 2024 – Jun 2025
- 14.2: Dec 2024 – Sep 2025
- 13.5: Mar 2025 – Apr 2026
- 14.3: Jun 2025 – Jun 2026