Debian 8 ‘Jessie’ GNU/Linux Extended Long Term Support (ELTS) for Enterprises

Debian 8 “Jessie” reached its end-of-life (EOL) on June 30, 2020 and subsequently, the Debian Team announced the discontinuation of support and security patches or any other updates for Debian 8.

While Debian 8 was released with 5-year long-term support, but after completing its lifetime, it is now an Extended Long Term Support (ELTS) release with extended support for enterprises, who can still extend the support of Debian 8 for another five years under the Extended Long Term Support (ELTS) by paying a fee.

The LTS Team have prepared the transition to Debian 9 "Stretch", as the current stable release and to take over support from the Security Team on July 6, 2020 with the final point update for stretch scheduled for release on July 18, 2020.

Release Timeline for Debian 9 “Stretch” LTS

Debian 8 GNU/Linux was released on April 25, 2015, and it completed its lifetime on June 30, 2020; it now becomes the current ELTS release with extended support for enterprises.

Now, Debian 9 which was released on June 17th, 2017, is the current LTS version, and it's scheduled to receive a final point update on July 18, 2020. With the Debian LTS Team providing long-support for Debian 9 from July 06, 2020, to June 30, 2022.

Some major changes expected with the final point update includes: improved APT package manager, the default MariaDB replacing MySQL, and modern branch of GnuPG in the gnupg package.

How to Upgrade to Debian 9

As expected, Debian 9 Stretch will receive a final point update on July 18, 2020. And the Debian LTS Team will provide long-term-support for Debian 9 from July 06, 2020, to June 30, 2022.

You can upgrade from Debian 8 to 9, the next LTS version, by first updating your /etc/apt/sources.list and running the commands:

sudo apt clean
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove

For futher information and guidance, you can check out the official upgrade guide for Debian 8 Jessie.