-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso wrote: > On 28/04/2008, Micha <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Actually i recommend sid to everyone except for servers where stable is more >> suitable. > > You must enjoy debugging a lot, then. Sid really *is* unstable, like > its name sounds, and like we can witness with Mond and with me. Newer > software is hardly ever necessary. For the fabled "desktop use", > stable is pretty good (websurfing, MSFT office documents, chatting, > multimedia), and there is no way I'm installing anything but stable on > grandma's machine. Stable doesn't crash, it does what it's supposed to > do, and it gives free software a good name. > > Backports are rarely necessary, and if there is a user savvy enough to > know that they want something newer than what's in stable, I recommend > them to try a backport, and if that doesn't work, then to compile from > source. Otherwise, I really question why do they need newer software. > > Hardware compatibility is a different issue. If they have hardware > that's too new for the etch kernels, then I will recommend testing, > with many reservations. But I don't recommend unstable to anyone > unless they're willing to tolerate the occasional crash and possible > data loss. This is Debian's official position too regarding the three > distributions. "The unstable distribution is where active development > of Debian occurs. Generally, this distribution is run by developers > and those who like to live on the edge." Debian newbies presumably > don't want to live on the edge. Debian also recommends that you run > stable, and they don't make a distinction between running stable on > servers or on "desktops". > > I run testing most of the time, with the occasional non-critical > unstable package, but that's because I like bugs. :-) When I can, I > will poke around the source code to see if I can find why a particular > piece of software is segfaulting. > > - Jordi G. H. >
But how does the distribution advance if *NOONE* runs testing/unstable? I run 4 Debian boxes at the moment, 2 sid, 1 testing, 1 stable. The stable box is with my mother, I really doubt the lack of features bothers her, and is handy for when i want to see "what's in etch". The testing machine is my laptop for work, which I need more features for, but don't need the regular breakages of sid (and yes, when things do hit the fan, i just install the working update with dpkg from the sid repos, and then let that advance sink into the background). Then i have 2 desktops which run sid, on different archtypes, and give me basis for comparison, and a chance to play with the latest and greatest, although i still wind up building a lot of svn and cvs code. Regards Rich Healey -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFIFnYILeTfO4yBSAcRAjPbAKDMjh4Jb2JBMZcPeu9Yfkn0ORN8ygCbB19I 8VqlEeA/jiTEtaA7pDn8+6E= =ExVu -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
