This question probably has a straightforward answer, but I've been unable to find one on the Debian site or elsewhere. Basically, how long do common packages take from the time they are released (like gnome 2.8, released yesterday, and Thunderbird 0.8, released today) until they can be installed by way of the apt system?

Anybody know?
I really want to get my hands on the new Thunderbird with its rss functionality.

Thanks.

Depends on who's doing the packaging, but usually not long, a few days for high profile stuff. KDE actually made it into unstable before the official release was announced.

Thanks. That's sort of what I thought. I know I can install most new things by compiling them myself (in the case of KDE apps, for example) or by way of provided binaries (in the case of Thunderbird), but it's just so much easier to type those two little words (apt-get...) and have the system take care of the messy details. Gosh, I sound like a Windows user!

There are already some Gnome 2.8 packages in "experimental" for the impatient.

http://packages.debian.org/experimental/gnome/

But better still wait until they are moved to Sid. Although Sid may break your toys, experimental is sure to do that.

lol, that's great. I'm the same way actually.


Also, how long does it typically take for a package in unstable to make it to testing? And then to stable? Just curious

From unstable to testing, can take a good while, anything from weeks to months. Then there are the freezes, while its prepared for release, where nothing gets through. Whats its made a release its stable.

So the final stage of stable is just that, and won't be updated for a good long while. So Stable KDE could be 2.2 ( i think ) but then could jump to 3.2, So things don't increment through versions in stable, as they do in testing ( mostly ) and unstable.

you dont have to wait for thunderbird...i am running it already...
just untar the tarball and click on the install script....

Thunderbird 0.8 is in Debian unstable now, and can be installed by way of apt. Works like a charm.
Like many folks, I prefer to use the apt system whenever possible. I have installed Firefox and Thunderbird from their install scripts, but this is not always a good idea unless you really know what you are doing. I have run into problems with multiple profiles and multiple directories doing it the manual way. (This is going back to TB 0.4, and when Firefox was Firebird, and things may have changed since then).

KDE is not unlike some dude in an earlier reply said "actually made it into unstable before the official release was announced", rather 3.3 made it into Unstable ~2 weeks after the official release. And this was a fantastic improvement over KDE 3.2 or GNOME 2.6 i.e. that latter took ~2 months and if I'm not wrong, even as I'm typing this out, not all of GNOME 2.6 is in Sarge e.g. gdm isn't.

For those eager to lay their hands on GNOME 2.8, this is what you can do:
Add these 4 lines below into your /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main
deb-src ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian ../project/experimental main
deb http://pkg-gnome.alioth.debian.org/debian experimental main
deb-src http://pkg-gnome.alioth.debian.org/debian experimental main

Then, insert the entries below into your /etc/apt/preferences (create it if there is none):
Package: *
Pin: release a=experimental
Pin-Priority: 650

Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 600

Followed by "apt-get update && apt-get -t experimental install libgnome2-0"

NOTE: You may find that Nautilus will install without problems but it won't run and experience other issues like all desktop icons you may have created in GNOME 2.6 not showing up; changing desktop background not working, etc.

Recompiling Nautilus is the only way out. The suggested solution is as follow:
1.) apt-get -t experimental build-dep nautilus
2.) apt-get -t experimental --build source nautilus
3.) dpkg -i *.deb

Should Step 2. fails i.e. building of the packages fails, you may need to do an "apt-get -t experimental upgrade' and retry Step 2 and then proceed to Step 3. Btw, Step 2 should give all a pretty decent idea as to what Gentoo is like i.e. source compiling/building optimized packages. Go take 2-3 ciggies + maybe a jog or whatever. By the time you are done with them, the build process may still not be finished and if the build fails, it'll mean going through the whole process again (i.e. after apt-getting the missing dependencies such as libeel-2 from either Unstable or more likely Experimental) . Still fancy doing a complete install this way?

But should the packages build and install smoothly, lo and behold what a beauty indeed is GNOME 2.8. FYI, Ubuntu Linux (a Debian-based effort) is the first distro released with GNOME 2.8. Most of the folks behind Ubuntu are the SAME devels and maintainers behind the Debian GNOME project e.g. Jeff Waugh (also with GNOME itself), Jordi Mallach, etc.

I would also advise all to have these entries in your /etc/apt/apt.conf (if you are tracking Unstable and if not amend the portion APT:efault-Release to pint it to the branch you are on). Double check to see what you have in apt.conf and add those that you do not have from below:

APT:efault-Release "unstable";
APT::Cache-Limit 10000000;
Apt::Get::Purge;
APT::Clean-Installed;
APT::Get::Fix-Broken;
APT::Get::Fix-Missing;
APT::Get::Show-Upgraded "true";

actually...i have only used the mozilla/phoenix/firefox/firebird/thunderbird install scripts and never had a problem.....all work perfectly as do the extentions and other mozilla addons.... you only have to set up a launcher which is quite easy in gnome....(i dont use KDE so not sure of how to this under kde)