Debian 8 "Jessie" was released on 25 Apr. A link to the Debian release page shows the changes and you can follow the release in 'real-time' should you desire to do so.
This release will be supported for 5 years and includes "improvements" to the UEFI software (both 32- and 64-bit) introduced in the previous version, "Wheezy". It also is the first release to use systemd as default init system replacing the earlier sysvinit, which is still available in the repos should you wish to revert the change. What effects such a change might have on the remainder of the system is not clear. Improvements to the support of Debian software include the ability to browse and search all source code distributed in the latest release.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hash14 on Sunday April 26 2015, @11:07PM
Then there was a GR with 1 pro-systemd option and 3 or 4 anti-systemd options, so all the anti-systemd votes got split and diluted (together they would have defeated the systemders 60 to 40)
I hate systemd as much as anyone else, but my understanding is that the GR uses the Condorcet method (or a similar ranking scheme) that doesn't require splitting votes. If you don't like systemd, you can simply rank that last behind all other options so your vote still counts no matter which one wins. Is this not correct?
That said, looking at the results [lwn.net] and this very depressing interpretation [debian.org] of them, I think it's safe to say that Debian has gone off the deep-end and a new distro with a legitimately sound technical grounding is necessary.