Not necessarily. You can stay in Debian but point your repos to the sid/unstable distribution. They will have GNOME 45 soon, but it’s a one-way ticket.
All you do is update your current system, change your repo sources to whatever branch you want, then do a full-upgrade. For branches there is stable, testing, and unstable (called sid). They don’t recommend you use sid for everyday use, things can be buggy (currently sid is on GNOME 44 at any rate). Instructions
It’s really common and actually explained in the Debian Wiki. Also, as others have mentioned, a stabler choice would be to use Debian testing/trixie, which will get GNOME 45 after a week or so in Debian sid/unstable.
Finally, the “one way ticket” is not really that. You can always wait for your testing or sid Debian OS to stabilize by managing your sources list in time. For example, by using “trixie” instead of “testing” in your sources lists, as long as they are all official repos, when Trixie launches as the Debian Stable distribution, you will be using Debian Stable. If you choose to use “testing” in your sources lists, you will always stay with a Debian Testing distribution.
@unionagainstdhmo when will it be released for Debian 12?
Never probably, might make it into the unstable branches but I’m not too familiar with those
@unionagainstdhmo Time to leave debian it is hehe
Not necessarily. You can stay in Debian but point your repos to the sid/unstable distribution. They will have GNOME 45 soon, but it’s a one-way ticket.
@selokichtli thanks, that’s helpful, but can you provide me with a guide or something?
All you do is update your current system, change your repo sources to whatever branch you want, then do a full-upgrade. For branches there is stable, testing, and unstable (called sid). They don’t recommend you use sid for everyday use, things can be buggy (currently sid is on GNOME 44 at any rate). Instructions
It’s really common and actually explained in the Debian Wiki. Also, as others have mentioned, a stabler choice would be to use Debian testing/trixie, which will get GNOME 45 after a week or so in Debian sid/unstable.
Finally, the “one way ticket” is not really that. You can always wait for your testing or sid Debian OS to stabilize by managing your sources list in time. For example, by using “trixie” instead of “testing” in your sources lists, as long as they are all official repos, when Trixie launches as the Debian Stable distribution, you will be using Debian Stable. If you choose to use “testing” in your sources lists, you will always stay with a Debian Testing distribution.
In the next 10 years /s