They call it the stable release, but because everyone puts quotes around the word stable, which sometimes is a hint of irony. Then they have the r4 tacked on end, it suggests to me an incomplete distribution; or that is what other distributions tack on to the end of version names when they are putting out a product that is broken just so people can test it out and provide bug reports Yet I can't find information about this on their Web site. Does Debian generally aim for stability or are for feeding you upgrades that take you to flakey, bleeding-edge applications that make it difficult to get work done?

r4 means release4 , with fourth set of patches/upgrades. It is really stable even the testng version is quite stable

See the Debian FAQ - it answers this kind of question.

Debian Stable is the most stable in town.
It's so stable it makes the strongest of the others look like an LA freeway overpass.

You get the scare quotes because it is soooo stable that calling it stable is an understatement of gigantic proportions. "Testing" is quite stable and "unstable" is pretty stable.

Debian 3.1r4 (Sarge) is so "stable" at this point, it's barely breathing. You don't really want to mess with it, if that's part of your question. If you want to install Debian at this point in time install Etch (Testing). It will shortly become the new Stable, and it's ready now.

rickh, love your post. "...so "stable" at this point, it's barely breathing." Ha! Sarge is a bit on the stodgy side. I sure wouldn't use for my desktop.

Sarge is a good way for a debian newbie to get started.....

Nah any desktop should be on etch now.

Don't think using Etch would hinder a newbie one bit.

Although rock solid, I won't back off on my opinion of Sarge one bit. Stodgy, stodgy, stodgy. Etch is the only way to go in Debian.

I use 'etch' and it has been very stable for a long time. When it goes stable, does it make sense to stick with testing but wait a bit before doing an upgrade, due to some flakyness that will undoubtedly be introduced during the transition? Will the new testing be called 'sid'? or something else?

The new "testing" will be called Lenny, and my recommendation is that you change your sources.list to "testing" so that you stay in testing when Etch goes to Stable. There will not be a lot of problems in Testing after the freeze, but it's likely that there will be in Sid (Unstable).

Stable is ready for the server and production workstation environment. Testing is almost always better for the home desktop. The only time in the last few years that widespread problems have migrated into Testing was during the conversion from XFree86 to Xorg.

i am not disagreeing only suggesting that until a newbie learns all the intricacies of updating etc...sarge is good....I run both sarge as a server as well as on three work stations....the others use etch as one uses SID...

The real problem with newbies installing Sarge is that any hardware less than a year old is likely to be unrecognized.

Thanks, will do that.

Wow, just finished installing sarge. GNOME is so fast, is like I have a brand new computer. GNOME on Debian is as fast as Xubuntu.

Do I need to install the Print server package? I just have Brother laser printer, non-network compatible, with USB plug. I not sure if that package maybe is for people with businessess.

Are packages that are not installed by default, such as Firefox, not considered stable?

Posted by General:
The only problem there, as others have stated, is that Etch is about to become stable. Sarge is a bit long in the tooth now. I have been using stable while I got used to Debian but will change my sources.list to testing as soon as the upgrade path to Etch is finalized.