October 7, 2008
Heise Open Source: Rallying call for late Debian 5.0
GNU/Linux Debian 5.0, "Lenny" has missed its originally proposed September release because of too many critical bugs. The developers have now issued a rallying call to Debian maintainers and users to encourage them to work on the next major release of Debian, with the aim of getting 5.0 out before the end of 2008.
Debian users who want to help are encouraged to try the Debian 5.0 beta releases, or upgrade their existing Debian installation.( More... )

Of course it is...
With Debian it ships when it's ready and not a moment sooner.
Late is the SOP with Debian.