Was wondering why PureOS currently has GNOME 3.22.x instead of 3.24.x given its rolling model. Is it because it's waiting on something to trickle down in Debian, or just because of lack of time to update those packages lately?
If it's part of the normal lifecycle, it would be nice to document as a reference page somewhere on the PureOS website, and/or a blog post, so the public knows what to expect (roughly).
I think I can answer this one.
Our repository is synced with Debian testing's repo. Debian is currently in a frozen state until the release of Debian 9 which should happen very soon.
After that, things will be back to normal with the rolling release until the next Debian frozen state (every 5 years?)
Francois is almost correct. We indeed sync with Debian testing, which is now in freeze state (state where new package don't merge in but only Release Critical bug fixes and cherry-picked updates) and yes, soon a copy of Debian testing will become next Debian stable release. Debian goes every ~1.5 year into freeze state and there stays for about half a year until it irons out RC bugs, after that the freeze blockade lifts off and packages from unstable start migrating into testing (usually 5-10 days is needed for migration unless some critical bug is found and reported). Also during freeze a lot of new packages (such as systemd and linux kernel) go into experimental branch of Debian from where packagers will reupload them into testing once freeze lifts. Sadly, GNOME packages don't get refreshed into experimental as they are occupied with a lot of work to have it in best possible shape (as GNOME is default DE for Debian as well). For the 5 years part Francois got - that is how long Debian gets security support for stable release (as Debian now has its own LTS efforts).
And I agree, we could state that we are based on Debian Testing should be enough (and point to Debian pages about it).
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-ftparchives#s-testing