Paul Gevers has announced that Debian is entering the first phase of a new stable release. On January 12th 2021 the Testing branch of Debian will begin to "freeze" signaling a slowdown in development and placing a focus on fixing bugs and polishing the distribution's packages for a new release. "On 12 January 2021 we're hitting the first milestone of the Bullseye release: the Transition and (build-)essentials Freeze. If you made plans for the bullseye release, now is the time to evaluate if it's realistic to go ahead or if time is running too short. Remember you always have experimental to stage changes. If there is a unfixed bug that is nagging you, remember to fix it (e.g. via an NMU) now rather than later." Though the Debian project does not stick to a firm release schedule, final releases tend to take place around five or six months after this initial freeze.