Iteration v10.3 (2026-04-18)

[StephanStS]

Day 0: Init new development cycle

To be done until: 2026-03-22 (Sunday)

• Create a new GitHub milestone for DietPi code https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi/milestones
• Create a new GitHub milestone for DietPi docs https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi-Docs/milestones
• DietPi: Select issues for the new iteration in the new milestone and check for closed milestones from previous iteration
• DietPi-Docs: Select issues for the new iteration in the new milestone and check for closed milestones from previous iteration
• Create a new section in the DietPi Wiki
• A new development cycle starts with a subversion increment, or major version increment when we drop support for an old Debian version or old DietPi versions. The RC version during the development cycle is "-1", to clearly identify unstable version strings. -> Edit version
• Init CHANGELOG.txt (in the dev branch)
• Add support to DietPi-Survey_report: Search for last release, e.g. aSOFTWARE_NAME10_3
• Init dietpi-globals (in the dev branch) with G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE, G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB, G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC identical to the values in file version (see above)
• Update dietpi-survey_report version on server

3rd week: Beta phase

To be done until: 2026-04-09 (Thursday)

• Update all own kernel, bootloader, and firmware packages
• Merge live patches from master and remove in dev.
• Create pull requests for all required documentation changes:
  • https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi/issues?q=%20label%3A"Docs%20change%20required"%20milestone%3Av10.3
  • https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi-Docs/issues?q=state%3Aopen%20milestone%3Av10.3

To be done at: 2026-04-11 (Saturday)

• Launch the initial beta as .0 RC version
• Advertise on GitHub
• Advertise on DietPi Forum with tag "beta"
• Advertise on DietPi-Banner MOTD
• Open a release PR draft and add its URL to the changelog

To be done at: 2026-04-12 (Sunday)

• Advertise on website slider: https://dietpi.com/
• Advertise on X (DietPi account)
• Advertise on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dietpi.com
• Advertise on Facebook (DietPi group)

To be done from: 2026-04-12 - 2026-04-18 (Sunday before release - Thursday before release)

• Address bug reports with further beta iterations, e.g. .1 and .2 RC versions

2 days before the release

To be done until: 2026-04-16 (Thursday)

• Have the docs release PR ready and reviewed, with release notes and required changes.
• Have a website PR ready and reviewed to advertise the new release with a slide

Release

To be done at: 2026-04-18 (Saturday)

• Assure that update server version and DietPi-Globals default version match.
• Merge PR with software fallback URL updates
• Make the release
• Close beta topic in forum: https://dietpi.com/forum/tag/beta
• Publish the release notes in DietPi Docs (i.e. merge the release notes PR, do it as "Merge pull request" and not as "Squash & Merge")
• Trigger the documentation page update
• Create a release tag: https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi/releases
• Link the release notes from website slider
• Update the MOTD
• Update software list in DietPi Wiki - software list
• If new software titles were introduced: Check ports in DietPi Wiki - port usage

Release announcements

To be done at: 2026-04-19 (Sunday)

• Publish on X (DietPi account)
• Publish on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/dietpi.com
• Publish on several Facebook groups (e.g. DietPi group)
• Announce on Hacker News and Reddit
• Forge and spread a press release
• Determine if a hotfix release is needed
• Create a new release plan
• Wikipedia page update (resp. Wikidata)