Am Mittwoch, 27. Juli 2016, 17:38:55 CEST schrieb Holger Schramm: > Am 27.07.2016 um 14:07 schrieb Martin Steigerwald: > > If you want to have stuff as it comes in, you can still switch to unstable > > – which works quite nicely for weeks already, IMHO. > > I was long time afraid to use sid (although i work with debian 24x7 a > day (servers and desktop), because it is called "unstable". But after I > have switched and used sid a couple of weeks I am suprised about it, > because I have less strugle with it instead of using testing. Especially > the different versions in testing with kde were very annoying (I don't > blame the maintainers about that).
Please note tough that there is no guarantee whatsoever that things work correctly in unstable. At some time I wasn´t even able to log in to the Plasma desktop, since it crashed while doing so. But this didn´t last for more than 2 days I AFAIR. The major transitions that build the background of this temporary instability, like the G++ ABI transition and some other stuff I don´t quite recall at the moment, are done. So I do not expect any major instability issues with unstable at the moment. But again, this is no guarantee. Back then I even installed MATE desktop that would even work if Qt would be completely broke (which it was for some time). On any account I suggest you are keeping another desktop around just in case, or at least be willing to temporarily install one, in case you want to follow unstable. Also… directly after a release it may be wise to stay with that release for a while, before following unstable again. That said, if you are willing to deal with issues, report them, help resolving them, find temporary workarounds, I see unstable as a quite viable alternative. Similar things apply to testing, however when using transitions works out as expected, in the future it may be a bit more stable, at the price of having to wait longer for new stuff to trickle in. What doesn´t work tough is to complain about that unstable is exactly that, well unstable, instead of focussing on the solution, i.e. making it stable again, or just applying a temporary workaround. I think this was one of the main points I´d like to bring up here all the time. Let it be a conscious decision and be ready to deal with the consequences of it and it can be quite adventurous, but lots of the time also quite pleasant experience. And if you stay positive and constructive, you help to keep the quality of Debian or to make it even better. -- Martin
