Daniel wrote:
>
> To be honest... Potato is completely STABLE.. :) I am using it and I havent
> had any
> problems so far, it just works great... I really dont think Debian is ever
> being
> unstable...
>
> Daniel
To be fair to all readers, especially newbies, this isn't good
advice to give. The unstable branch that is being actively worked
on can become UNSTABLE at a moment's notice. All it takes is a
recent upload of a possibly broken package (or packages in
conflict of some sort with one another), that ends up breaking
other things. Apt/Dpkg in this situation will be confused by the
situtation untill the problem is rectified by a second upload of
the previously broken package(s).
In many cases its not the Deb maintaner's fault. Packages in
unstable are often very recent versions of the upstream source
which may end up being the problem, because of a bug in the recent
code, or minor inconsistancy with an older package, a library
perhaps, that previously would work together correctly.
Often it only takes patience, i.e. wait for the situation on
ftp.debian.org to stabilize before attempting a Apt/Dpkg upgrade.
Sometimes however, with GNOME lately for me, problems do not show
up untill after the upgrade.
So the unstable branch can have periods of stability, but because
its still under active development, with frequent uploads, it
should still be approached with trepidation by newcomers. Those
of us who can live with, and handle, these kinds of problems and
will upgrade against unstable anyway, already know who we are.
--
Ed C.
