Even in October 2022, there are still months to go before the release of Debian 12, which will be the next version of one of the most important operating systems existing in Linux. Like all releases, the 12th will also have a name of a character from the Toy Story saga, the worm Bookworm. Later, about two years later, Trixie will arrive, and about 48 months later another version will be released, in this case a Debian 14 whose code name has already been released.
I have to admit that, without being a fan of the saga, I have to search the internet for images to find out which character gives the name to a new version of Debian, and even that the same reason prevented me from knowing where the names were taken from until after several years. It's something I did with Bullseye, Trixie and now with forky, the pointed character that will give name to Debian 14. For those who speak only Spanish and do not speak English either, tell them that “Forky” would be the diminutive of “fork”, which would be something like “Fork”.
Debian 14 is still more than four years away
Right now, the most up-to-date stable version is Debian 11, specifically 11.5. The next major release will be Debian 12.0, scheduled for 2023. Trixie will arrive in 2025, and Forky will arrive clicking already in 2027. Where announced the name of Debian 14 they have also talked about the next Debian 12, confirming January 12 as the date for the transition and the toolchain freeze.
As for the news that Debian 14 will bring, well, you can imagine; it is virtually impossible to advance anything. What is certain is that it will include more than tested software, which makes Debian more stable than other distributions such as its favorite child, Ubuntu. With this I do not mean that Ubuntu is not stable, but that Debian is more so because of its philosophy. So you will use the latest LTS kernel, if it has been available for months, and desktops with several maintenance updates already behind them.
It is not to detract from debian, but Ubuntu lts are the same or more stable than debian. With Ubuntu lts I have never had a single problem, with debian stable I have had problems, with testing too, now I use slackware and I have even fewer problems, specifically none.
As for the desktop environments, if the numbering doesn't change GNOME 51 or 52 and some more mature version of KDE Plasma 6 will be present in Debian 14, it's impossible to know exactly what they will look like, but they will surely have a more modern theme than the current and Wayland consolidation will be close by then.
Of course, it's quite a long time, and we won't know if humanity will survive by that point (because you know what) but it's always good to keep hope, time will tell if GNOME will finally be usable for most users without having to resort to extensions.