[TriLUG] Debian question

[Andrew Perrin]

Don't forget that there are three separate debians:

- stable (aka potato): rock-solid, no bugs, updated for security only
- testing (aka woody): more up-to-date, should be no major bugs, updated
for security and up-to-dateness, shouldn't break because of upgrades
- unstable (aka sid): latest packages, may break because of package
upgrades midstream.

Debian remains very up to date, but also very cautious about claims made
to stability. Running potato, I have had no bugs, crashes, security holes,
etc., for well over a year. Running woody, I have had  a few (mostly
library conflicts) that were resolved quickly. I haven't tried sid.

So, bottom line: with debian you get to choose among three points on the
up-to-date/buggy curve.

ap

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Andrew J Perrin - andrew_perrin at unc.edu - http://www.unc.edu/~aperrin
 Assistant Professor of Sociology, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
      269 Hamilton Hall, CB#3210, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3210 USA


On Fri, 22 Feb 2002, M. Mueller (bhu5nji) wrote:

> Is Debian falling behind the other main distros (RH, Mandrake, SUSE)?  I pick 
> up hints that this is the case in things that I read and overhear.  Several 
> months ago I had some mysterious mainboard problems usings Debian Potato that 
> did not exist with RH6.1 (straight out of the box).  That experience put the 
> question into my head.  Then I just read Mr. Chen's post that the ext3 stuff 
> is unofficially in the Debian.
> 
> Are the "for profit" distros able to apply more resources to staying current?
> 
> Disclaimer:  I know that distro questions can ignite passions similar to the 
> way editor questions ignite passions.  My interest is dispassionate.  Please 
> feel free to release passion nonetheless.  I would love to use Debian.  I 
> think the Debian user list rocks.  But I am inadequate and I just couldn't 
> make the distro work on some of my newsest hardware.  But there is this 
> nagging question in the back of my mind that I ask this group to help me sort 
> out.  (Donning flame suit).
> 
> -- 
> Mike  M.
> 
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