B. M. wrote: > I'm using Debian since about a year now, so this is my first freeze :-)
When you say "using Debian" that is not sufficient to really describe what you are doing. I use Debian Stable on production servers. I also run Debian Unstable for testing and reporting bugs before the next release. Others run Debian Testing in order to have a semi-rolling release. > How does the freeze work in regard to KDE: currently, many packages > are at 4.14.2, PIM is at 4.14.1 and the latest 4.14 release is > 4.14.3 You are talking about the latest upstream KDE release. The latest KDE release available in Debian is 4.14.2. But if you are talking about production releases then we are talking the Debian Stable release. In Debian Stable the latest KDE is 4.8.4 released with Debian 7 Wheezy. Debian is a software distribution. Software distributors distribute software from upstream projects into nice bundles for end users such as you and I to install and use as a single thing. There are thousands of upstream projects assembled into Debian. But in order for that to happen the package must be packaged for Debian. That takes some time and doesn't happen instantaneously. There is always some normal lag between packages released upstream and then getting released in Debian. And often that is intentional if the upstream doesn't have anything of significant value the downstream distributions may wait for the next major release instead. > Is it true that the packages will stay at these version numbers, > also after the release of Jessie? When Debian Jessie is released as Debian Stable then it will be released. Nothing will change anymore. The many Debian Stable users such as all of my production systems will be planning to upgrade from the previous production release to the next. We don't want any more changes after it has been released! > But wouldn't it make sense to upgrade everything to 4.14.3 since > this is the latest and most stable KDE 4 release? Is this impossible > because it conflicts with the Debian policy? It conflicts with your choice of release track. You are currently tracking Jessie? The entire purpose of Jessie is to be a release candidate to become the next Stable release. As a release candidate Jessie spends its growing up life learning how to be a release to Stable when it will graduate and stop being fiddled with further. If you want to continue tracking the bleeding edge then you should not be using Jessie. To track the bleeding edge continuously you would select Testing or Unstable Sid. (Sid is the name given to Unstable. Sid is the kid in Toy Story who tormented the toys.) If you want to continue to get upgrades then Testing or Sid is the choice you would make not Jessie. So it is your choice. If you are like me and want production stability then Debian Stable is the right choice. If you want to ride the wave and surf the bleeding edge bits then Testing or Unstable is the right choice for you. However! And this is a big however. Testing and Unstable are by definition the release candidates. Emphasis on candidate. They sometimes break. They sometimes have bugs. Sometimes bad bugs. The bleeding edge is called the bleeding edge because sometimes when living on the "cutting edge of technology" you can get cut up on it and bleed. Bob
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
