On Sunday 19 February 2012 16:57:59 Kristopher John Gamrat wrote:
> On Sunday 19 February 2012 04:51:46 am Lisi wrote:
> > On Saturday 18 February 2012 23:26:15 Kristopher John Gamrat wrote:
> > > I thought they did all have numbers? I don't know about the first few
> > > releases, but IIRC, Etch was 3.? (I forget the point number).
> > >
> > > --
> >
> > Once they are released as "Stable", yes they do.  But many people use
> > Stable only on their servers, and use "Testing" on their desktops. 
> > (Testing is pretty stable - just not Stable).  E.g., many (most) people
> > are currently using Wheezy on their desktops.  Wheezy hasn't got a
> > number, so how are people to refer to it?
>
> As "Testing", which is the name officially given to it regardless of the
> official codename for the release they are working on. There are also
> "Development" and "Upcoming", though these aren't officially used. Also,
> nothing's stopping the developers from giving it a version number. They
> just choose not to.

There's a lot more to it than that.  See leee's excellent explanation in this 
thread.

Lisi