On Wed, Nov 27, 2013 at 1:34 AM, Joe <j...@jretrading.com> wrote: > Depends on what you need that's new. Stable in the sense that the > software version is not changed, except for some frequently-updated > workstation software such as web browsers and virus checkers. Nearly > all other software is frozen at the version of about six months before > release. Releases are occurring about every two years, and security > support for the older version continues for another year.
> This is what you need for servers and business workstations. You don't > want features to change unexpectedly, particularly if they may break > something you need to use every day, where actual money may be involved. > If the software does the job you want, it will still be doing that same > job three years later. > This may not be what you want as a leisure user, or even as a business > user if you don't mind fixing things. If you need to use more modern > software, such as a graphics program which gains new features every six > months, then you will want to look at faster-evolving distributions. > There are many of these, and quite a few are based on one of the other > two Debian distributions. > Debian Testing is the test bed for the next release of Stable. As such, > the software alters pretty much daily until the freeze, which is about > six months before the release of the next Stable. During that period, > bugs are fixed, and when there are relatively few left, it is released. > Not on a particular date, but when the bugs are fixed. Release happens > when the green line here: > http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/ pretty much hits zero, at > least in terms of serious bugs. > So the downside of using a more up-to-date distribution is more bugs, > as you would expect. There is a third Debian distribution called > Unstable, and it is. The software itself is fairly recent, and is > newly-integrated into Debian, which brings further surprises. Unstable > is never frozen or released, it evolves continuously. It evolves very > quickly after a Stable release, and anything that survives for about > ten days without serious problems gets moved to Testing, so both > distributions are a bit hairy to use for the next six months. Neither > are suitable for a beginner, so the recommendation is to try Stable. > As others have said, it is possible to use newer Linux software in any > of the distributions, you just have to take a bit of responsibility for > maintaining it, as it won't be automatically updated. Sometimes you can > use a Debian-compatible package, which has been made by the software > authors and hasn't, for a range of reasons, yet been accepted into a > Debian distribution. Sometimes you need to compile from source code, > though this isn't especially difficult. If you do bring in outside > software, you may need to do a little extra work, such as tracking down > a few additional required packages, or adding a few file links. Once > you've done a bit of this, and know where to look for help with > problems, you might want to try Testing or Unstable. > Bear in mind that almost any Linux distribution will have more problems > than Stable, simply because the software is newer. I've used Unstable > for leisure and business for nearly ten years now, during which time > I've had a few disagreements with it and reinstalled twice when > something was beyond my abilities to fix. But I've had similar problems > with Windows, of which the customers only ever see what is effectively > the Stable version, and it's a lot harder to fix things there. Well, I agree with your points but I believe now that stable versions are best suited for the business needs and where changes are not required frequently. Once set-up, just take coffee and forget for years....all things work like you worked for the very first year...(except for a few changes, if any). That's good for servers. To my belief, end users would like something more fancy! -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/CAHBpLRNxDsX89jgcNaxYK5=wdcssebeovollkw4ppouoet1...@mail.gmail.com
