> All this is IMHO. Warning rant ahead: > > 1) testing not for users. It is for debian maintainers putting the > next stable release together. > > There is a mechanical aging process which lets packages come over > from sid. A package could get updated, wait, and just when it's > about to land in testing, it gets some new minor update. The > package may work great the whole time, but it doesn't gets into > testing for a long time. When sid is revving heavily, you might > never get an update since some dependency somewhere is getting an > update. I think that security is now doing updates for testing. > They used to not do it and under that case testing was positively > foolhardy. > > While it is usually solid, a breakage in testing can sometimes take > ages to get fixed. This is the nature of testing. There is no > manual override of the aging process. > > 2) Use "sarge" or "sid" instead. Sarge is stable and everything works > and is included. Right now, it's not even superannuated. Sid gets > quick updates. It might be broke once in a while, but it isn't > broke for long. (Of course it might really blow up and clobber > your system if, e.g., libc.so get hosed.) > > 3) Do not use "stable" in your apt sources since that could surprise > you when we get a new stable. Stable releases are rare enough that > manually changing /etc/apt/sources.list is not a problem. Hence, > the fixed name is better. > > 3) If you want to use "testing", put "etch" into your apt sources. Of > course, I could be extra perverse and argue that if you are a user > who would be surprised you have no business running testing anyhow. >
I just totally agree with you. A little difference, I switch my production machines (stable) to testing somewhere during the "frozen" time (of course using testing real name. I prefer having a manual control on the oldstable->newstable update. I am around since ham and this worked without problems for me. My desktops use unstable. The problem is always the same: Newbies don't understand the sense of the word "unstable" as used by Debian. In fact they lack understanding what a distribution is, and therefore what a stable (or unstable) distribution is. Michel. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]