Hi

A year ago I downloaded Debian 3.1 r2 Iso images, and today I see that they're bumped up to r5. What are the differences between these versions?
If I install with my r2 images, will I loose anything, or will my install easally be upgraded to r5?

/A

It's fairly easy to install rc2 and then upgrade to rc5. Actually, that is exactly what happens when you upgrade a system: a program is updated from an older version to a new version. No risk to your system, until you've decided to upgrade to Etch (which will happen fairly soon btw). So I recommend to install Etch straightaway, to prevent any possible problems upgrading in the (near) future. Go for the net-install cd.

Debian Stable receives no new packages, only security updates. Therefore, the only difference between Sarge R2 and R5 is that R5 has the most recent security patches. You can easily install from R2, and the "aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade" to update everything to the most recent version.

As Dutch Master said, I would recommend getting an Etch netinstall cd, and installing that. Etch will replace Sarge as the Stable release very soon. For Desktop use, the Testing version (currently Etch) is plenty stable enough. When Etch goes Stable, then stick with Testing which I think will be called Lenny.

--Ian

Well, Therefore, Sarge needs to be updated as soon as possible. The testing distro is known as Lenny.

http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/
http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/