Etch vs. Testing
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| azerthoth Mar 22, 2007 8:12 AM EDT |
You may want to switch your repo's to Etch instead of testing. Currently the two are the same however once Etch goes stable all the packages that have been sitting and waiting in unstable will go crashing into testing with a resounding thud. It may be a few months before the testing repository will become "stable" again, so the day the switch is made your first 'apt-get update && apt-get upgrade' might just turn your box into so much useless circuitry. |
| jimf Mar 22, 2007 8:21 AM EDT |
> apt-get upgrade Any dist or blind upgrade at this point is probably foolish if you keep testing. Actually, if you use synaptic, it's going to be quite obvious that things have changed. Just don't grab for all that new stuff ;-) Oh, and, Scotts problem wasn't that he got something from experimental, but that he failed to check what was to be removed. Many of us have been running kde 3.5.6 for some time and it's quite 'stable'. |
| azerthoth Mar 22, 2007 9:32 AM EDT |
Thanks jimf, I was just pointing out a potential "whoops". Its funny though, I have been running Debian for 5 or 6 years and while I dont know when expiremental came into being I do know that I have yet to had any burning reason to even make an entry for it in my sources.list. Once in a blue moon do I find reason to uncomment unstable and go looking for anything in there, the last time was about 6 to 9 months ago when I was playing with getting the nvidia drivers and using Etch. I usually find tesing to be perfectly acceptable except for the first month or two after an unfreeze. |
| jimf Mar 22, 2007 9:39 AM EDT |
> I usually find tesing to be perfectly acceptable except for the first month or two after an unfreeze. Yep. A wise move. I usually keep all the basic system in testing and only go outside that when I'm pretty sure I can safely downgrade to recover. Another tip is to let your friends be the first to try the new stuff first :D |
| bigg Mar 22, 2007 10:46 AM EDT |
How do you know when it's safe to go back to testing? I doubt there is a formal announcement. |
| azerthoth Mar 22, 2007 11:10 AM EDT |
As jimf said, let someone you know take the plunge and ask them how it turned out. Barring that you could run it up under QEMU and see what breaks. The theory is that normally anything that moves from unstable to testing is that its been the system and been run through a few times, there are no major bugs or dependancy issues and hasnt really blown anyones system up. The Debian folks run a few scripts on it and if all goes well after a waiting period it automagically moves into testing. This is great when there isnt a freeze on in preperation for a new stable release as packages trickle in and glaring errors show up quickly and can be dealt with in litle or no time. The freeze however has been on for some months now which means all kinds of unseen or unnoticed bugs and dependancy issues could be lurking just waiting to hit testing to show their ugly heads. It makes for a good argument for snapshoting the testing repo at the time of the freeze and then freezing only the next stable instead of freezing the entire testing branch. That however makes too much sense so probably wont ever happen. |
| jimf Mar 22, 2007 11:30 AM EDT |
@ bigg & azerthoth I'm usually on IRC Server: irc.oftc.net Channel: #debcentral Nick: R0nin In the evenings I'm also on Server: freenode Channel:#mepis If you need help, or just want to talk, there are a lot of good, knowledgeable users that hang there. Most of them don't even run Mepis :D |
| bigg Mar 22, 2007 11:42 AM EDT |
> Most of them don't even run Mepis I don't knock Mepis anymore. It's the only distribution that would run without any problems on my wife's new laptop (Compaq Presario C502US). It even starts the wireless without a problem. If not for Mepis I would be running Vista while babysitting my son. |
| jimf Mar 22, 2007 11:51 AM EDT |
> I don't knock Mepis anymore. Not knocking, just noting. Most there, including myself, started with Mepis too. Better that people start with Mepis where we know they'll get decent support and guidance. they can move to Debian or something else when they get their sea legs. |
| Bob_Robertson Mar 22, 2007 11:59 AM EDT |
"they can move to Debian or something else when they get their sea legs." That's also what I tell people who want to start using Debian. Try stable. Make that work for you, and if you like it and begin to worry about "outdated" applications, _then_ move to Unstable. After that, what, LFS? |
| jimf Mar 22, 2007 12:01 PM EDT |
> After that, what Entirely up to them. At that point they have the info :D |
| rtrentc Mar 24, 2007 6:55 AM EDT |
Nah not LFS, go with gentoo. |
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