Maintenance policy

AIMS OS is a Debian-stable-based distribution aligned with the AIMS Senegal academic calendar. This page documents the release cadence, package architecture, support duration, and how to receive updates.

Package architecture in three layers

Starting with v2.1, the metapackages are organised in three stacked layers. This structure exists to allow multi-centre distribution without duplicating the technical baseline.

┌─ Universal subjects (generic tech stack)
│  aims-os-core / -desktop / -math / -bigdata / -security…
│
├─ Centre profiles (one per AIMS centre)
│  aims-os-centre-senegal      ← Mbour bookmarks, wallpapers, Wi-Fi
│  aims-os-centre-senegal-labo ← lab workstations: IT SSH (off the ISO)
│  aims-os-centre-southafrica  ← future, by AIMS SA
│
└─ Centre × subject × year (curriculum)
   aims-os-centre-senegal-bigdata-2026   ← course PDFs, datasets, syllabus
   aims-os-centre-senegal-security-2026
   aims-os-centre-southafrica-bigdata-2026

Universal subjects

Generic technical tooling useful to any AIMS centre teaching the subject. No country, campus or syllabus references.

Update cadence: tied to the Debian stable release (~2 years). The Python / R / CLI tooling does not move at AIMS cycle pace.

Examples: aims-os-bigdata (Spark, Dask, OpenCV, Cartopy, postgresql-client); aims-os-security (nmap, wireshark, hashcat).

Centre profiles

Visual identity, intranet wiring and local config of a given AIMS centre. Stable over time: the AIMS Mbour intranet bookmarks do not change every year.

Update cadence: tied to the campus (~rare). When AIMS Mbour switches mail platforms, we bump aims-os-centre-senegal.

Expected contents:

• Firefox bookmarks pointing at the campus intranet, library, mail, learning platforms
• Campus wallpapers (local photos)
• NetworkManager Wi-Fi profile
• CUPS PPDs for campus printers
• Logo and other brand assets

Centre × subject × year (curriculum)

Pedagogical content specific to one centre, one subject, one cohort. Course PDFs, datasets used in class, syllabus, exercises, past exams.

Update cadence: yearly. Each academic-year start ships a new package. Students on the previous cohort keep their package; they are not affected.

Naming convention: aims-os-centre-<country>-<subject>-<intake-year>

Examples:

• aims-os-centre-senegal-bigdata-2026 (Mbour 2026-2027 Big Data cohort)
• aims-os-centre-senegal-security-2026
• aims-os-centre-southafrica-bigdata-2026

Installing in practice

A Mbour 2026-2027 Coop Big Data student installs everything in one command:

sudo apt install aims-os-centre-senegal-bigdata-2026

This package depends on:

Depends: aims-os-bigdata,           ← technical stack
         aims-os-centre-senegal,    ← campus identity
         aims-os-math               ← shared baseline

→ Apt resolves the cascade, the student gets it all in one go: Spark

• AIMS-Mbour bookmarks + 2026 course PDFs.

Current state of the layers

Layer	Implemented in v2.1	Status
Universal subjects	✅	11 metapackages published
Senegal centre profile	⚠️ empty stub	Architecture in place, content to add (bookmarks, wallpapers, etc.)
Other centre profiles	❌	To be created by each centre
Centre × subject × year	❌	To create when a cohort’s pedagogical content is ready

Base: Debian stable

Each AIMS OS major version tracks one Debian stable release:

AIMS OS	Debian base	Status
v2.x	Debian 13 (Trixie)	current
v3.x	Debian 14 (Forky)	once Forky ships (~summer 2027)

We jump to a new major within 6 months after a new Debian stable ships, giving the bundled third-party tools (Cursor, RStudio, DBeaver, Bun, Deno…) time to support the new base.

4 releases per academic cycle

The AIMS academic cycle runs September → August. AIMS OS ships four releases per cycle, anchored to the teaching milestones.

Release	Window	Contents
vX.Y.0	September	Cycle start. Stack frozen for the new courses, ISO handed to incoming students
vX.Y.1	December	Mid-term. Security + fixes after the first round of field feedback
vX.Y.2	March	Post-break. Second-semester tools if new courses need them
vX.Y.3	July	Cleanup, prep for the next cycle

Between releases, security patches flow continuously via the APT repo, no reflash needed.

Emergency hotfixes

Off-schedule: a vX.Y.Z+1 release ships immediately when a critical CVE lands on a core component (kernel, glibc, OpenSSL, GNOME). We do not wait for the next milestone.

Urgency criteria:

• CVSS v3 score ≥ 8.0
• Known public exploitation
• Component exposed by default on AIMS OS

Support

Each major gets two support tiers:

• Full support: the entire lifetime of the major. Functional updates, security, bug fixes.
• Security-only: 6 months after the next major ships. Only CVE backports.

In practice, an AIMS OS major stays usable and patched for roughly 3 years, matching Debian stable’s support window for the underlying base.

Major	Full support	Security-only	EOL
v2.x	until v3.0 ships	6 months after v3.0	~Q1 2028
v3.x	until v4.0 ships	6 months after v4.0	TBD

Receiving updates

Installed system

The AIMS OS APT repo is added automatically during install. To pull patches between releases:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Schedule via cron, or let unattended-upgrades handle it (configured for security fixes by default).

Live ISO (USB stick)

The latest/ ISO on our R2 mirror is overwritten on every release. Re-download to get the most recent version. To pin a specific version, use the tag-prefixed URL (e.g. v2.0.0-rc1/).

Check your version

cat /etc/aims-os-release

Prints the installed version, Debian base, and build date.

Announcements

Each release is announced:

• On the GitHub Releases page
• By email on the internal AIMS list (students + staff)
• With a full changelog in the tag’s commit message