I know its a stupid question, but what makes me ask that I cant wait for the stable lenny.
I have tried to google my question but I didnt find something useful.

You won't find a definite answer. Lenny's release has been postponed until the most important bugs have been resolved. Those who regularily follow the lists have estimated 2009 mid-year.

But there's no reason why you should start to use Lenny right away. As is the custom with Debian, testing's very usable already. And if you just long for a bleeding-edge version of Debian, try sidux.

M.

I'm not sitting around waiting for official Lenny stable.. I'm runnning a 'stable' lenny.. No, it won't officially be the stable branch until mid 2009 per current predictions but I've had no stability issues. The only thing I might not run it on is a production server. For a personal system it runs great !!

What are you trying to do that you need Lenny to be the Stable branch for ?
Is it a hardware related issue ?
Will Debian Etchnhalf, with it's updated kernel, fit the bill for now ?

I want to use it for the home use only but the problem is the computer is 24\7 and I use it in virtualization (virtual machines) for that I want something works very stable to not make a restart every day.
What about the dreamlinux is it better than sidux?
I see dreamlinux is above sidux in the distrowatch ranks
after that I examined that sidux and dreamlinux use xfce environment and I use only gnome

Virtually everyone who understands Debian is using Lenny already.

You can install any version of Linux that you like. This isn't windows. You're not going to have to regularly reboot the system after you get everything configured.

I've had bleeding edge distributions (gentoo) updated daily functioning as servers (not by my choice) with up times in excess of a year. Debian in general is extremely conservative and there is nothing even remotely bleeding edge about stable or testing.

In Debian if version doesn't matter and stability is of utmost importance, with only security fixes and critical bug fixes, and updates that never break your custom configurations, stable is the right answer.

The software in stable (etch currently) is typically extremely out of date except for security fixes and critical bug fixes. However, there is probably no other distribution that can match it's stability as a basic level.

The software in testing (lenny currently) is going to be nearly as stable but once in a while an update will break things or a package will not function as expected.

The software in unstable (sid always) is going to semi-frequently break things when you update... however, even in sid, once an application is installed and working... it's going to run just fine without needing regular reboots. There are exceptions to that, but they're almost always application related not distribution related.

Regardless of the distribution type or listed stability once you have it installed and configured you will be able to run your application indefinitely without a reboot in 99.99% of cases. This is pretty much true of all unix and linux in general.

A reboot is typically only required if you update the kernel, and I can assure you Lenny doesn't do that every day.. you may need to restart X for some updates, but that shouldn't affect Vmware Server at all..

If you don't install the kernel meta packages, or remove them later, Debian will not automatically suggest kernel updates, Kernel updates will only occur when YOU request them.

I'm currently running Etch on one unit at home, it has run flawlessly since Etch became stable, not one hiccup since April 07
So if I do a clean install of Lenny RC1 should I leave my sources.list file as is? I'd like Lenny to receive security updates when Lenny is officially released as stable.
I'm a security junky

Yes.... I guess...... dunno what your sources list looks like now..

this is what it looks like on my Lenny box.


it-etch:/~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
It works....


Note: ignore the hostname it-etch..... I haven't bothered to change it, it's been Lenny for months now

Thanks, man:-) I appreciate the help! I can't decide if I should do a clean install with the Lenny netinstall iso (back-up my stuff) or try a dist-upgrade from Etch. A dist-upgrade at this point may not work I'm guessing.

After I downloaded debian testing weekly-builds, I tried it on a vmware and after the installation I found that there is no synaptic manager to install packages, and the nautilus is so old no tab browsing in it, so what they mean by weekly-builds? I thought that they put on it the latest packages.

ooh sorry I think that I downloaded the wrong CD.
now I am downloading lenny_live_beta2 I think this better for home use.

Here is how to upgrade from Debian Etch to Debian Lenny. I did this on October 13, 2008 and have been running Lenny with no problems since:


Upgrading from Etch to Lenny:

1. Open a terminal and type sudo su
2. Now type cd /etc/apt/ && gedit sources.list
3. Replace all occurrences of etch with lenny and save the file
4. Back at the terminal type apt-get update
5. Once the update has finished type apt-get dist-upgrade (and follow any onscreen instructions)

If all goes well, once finished you should be able to reboot into your new Debian Lenny kernel.

-------------------------
Steve Stites

The only thing beyond that I would suggest is good backups. I recommend that before any upgrade beyond normal security fixes and even then it should be done on a regular basis.

actually according to the devs. you missed a step.. they suggest you upgrade the package management system before you upgrade the distro. .

hitest, by all means backup everything and test the upgrade, and submit a report success or fail. if it fails then you can do you r clean install. follow the link under "upgrading from Etch to Lenny."