[ILUG] Debian

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Liam Bedford (lbedford at lbedford.org):

> get a release version if you're desperate for stability at all costs...
> 
> get -STABLE (testing) if you want bugfixes etc quickly
> 
> get -CURRENT (unstable) if you like living on the bleeding edge :)
> 
> woody does me fine on my laptop, and I have sid on my work machine...
> 
> You can now install direct to both, without having to go for stable first
> (which was a pain). Though it does look like the release process is slowing
> down all the time. They seem to have instituted the new system to try and
> deal with that a bit. (packages that have been stable for 2 weeks get into
> testing.

In addition to having been unchanged for a fortnight, the packages also
have to build on all architectures, to make it into "testing".  Those 
two conditions turn out to jointly constitute a very effective filter 
against problems.

And given the daily incremental march forward of that branch via apt,
I'd say the concept of a "release" is somewhat obsolete in that context.

The reviewers of course can never get their minds around that concept,
being fixated on distributions' being defined by CD-ROMs rather than
Internet package collections and an administrative scheme.

-- 
"Is it not the beauty of an asynchronous form of discussion that one can go and 
make cups of tea, floss the cat, fluff the geraniums, open the kitchen window 
and scream out it with operatic force, volume, and decorum, and then return to 
the vexed glowing letters calmer of mind and soul?" -- The Cube, forum3000.org