On Sun, Jul 23, 2006 at 01:34:42AM -0400, Godless Infidel wrote: > Is it true, as I have heard, that you must run "testing" or "unstable" > in order to run the recent versions of applications? Hi $NEW_USER, Debian has many streams and each has a goal. Stable is meant to be 'released' and has 'release goals' like stabillty and specific features. Since it is 'released' about every 18 months, it does not, by definition, contain the most recent versions of any software. But people who use it get 'enterprise-ready' and easy to use software. If you want something that has more recent versions, you can run testing or unstable. But you must deal with the shortcommings those version have: they are less well tested, libel to not be 100% installable and have changing sets of programs. I use unstable, which has the most change, but I would not run it on a production server, it is better suited for experienced users who dont need enterprise-ready software, not that it isn't close to that already. There is one way to use more recent versions of some software on stable, that is to use 'backports'. Again this is a compromise but one that many make. It takes more recent version of important software for servers and recompiles that to work with library versions in stable. It provides an intermediate solution for stable users but it again affect the useability of stable as backports introduce a possible source of instability to the 'stable' release while giving a bit of improved functionality. cheers, Kev -- | .''`. == Debian GNU/Linux == | my web site: | | : :' : The Universal | debian.home.pipeline.com | | `. `' Operating System | go to counter.li.org and | | `- http://www.debian.org/ | be counted! #238656 | | my keysever: pgp.mit.edu | my NPO: cfsg.org |
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