I'll tell you: Debian GNU/Linux 3.1 codename 'Sarge' was frozen and security support began on the 3rd May 2005. Today (19/05/2005) an almost full freeze has begun, meaning that only release critical bug fixes will go in.

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Andrew Donnellan
Free software (as in freedom) or - rm -rf / !

Yes, I've noticed very few updates to the software I have installed since the announcement.

The latest is the last week of May or the first week of June.

I can hardly wait, so then they can cut Sid loose and switch it over to X.org, so then they can upgrade to KDE 3.4 which I've found to be a significant improvement over KDE 3.3. There are several other software titles that I would also like to see brought up to current versions in Sid.

I totally agree with you for Xorg, but for KDE I definitely prefer GNOME... Even if it's harder to use, it's just nicer and smoother (GTK2+), and NOT a Windows-like GUI

BTW I've made an update recently and even if I have apache2 (which i still don't understand why they don't called it by its name, i.e. httpd or httpd2), and i've installed also php4-cli and php4-pear... And now, since the last update, they want me to install apache-common and libapache-mod-php4... The dependancies are really screwed sometimes!!

Well, we'll try to be patient, as usual

I mostly use KDE these days (on machines with enough power) because I like how fast Konqueror loads (especially in KDE 3.4) compared to the gecko based browsers, I also like the set of all the utility programs that make for a very complete GUI front end to the OS, even though I think many of the Gnome based applications are better overall, there just isn't a complete set of them yet. I never did like Nautilis, but I suppose I'm the only one that feels that way. Finally, although KDE has been traditionally bloated and buggy they recently made lots of improvements in this area.

On the plus side, Sid is about as stable as it gets right now, I've had zero problem installing and upgrading software over the past six months and most everything "just works". I sometimes forget how spoiled I am until I so something like install the latest version of FreeBSD, which I did a couple of days ago, and found all the stuff that didn't work "out-of-the-box" as well as a lot of other "rough edges" that are simply taken care of in Debian. Also I was suprised how out of date a lot of software in their ports tree is, far worse than current Debian Unstable repository.

Another sidenote: I am recently having very good luck with keeping my Slackware system up-to-date from way back with version 9.1 to current despite its seemingly wreckless concept of "package management".

I agree, I have had one heck of a home desktop system with Debian-testing. I recommend it to anyone regardless of any bleeding-edge hype. I went with Sarge on a whim after scouring the net for info on a good all-around home desktop system that I could totaly dedicate my entire hard drive to and this has been the best I've seen so far. Like anything though, your milage may vary.

It should be tomorrow if the site above doesn't lie

BTW, there are a lot of updates these last days, ~45 packages a day, which is uncommon...

No, not tomorrow. The release will be delayed by one week. Here's the latest news from Friday:

http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel.../msg00020.html

Also, there are still bugs to be fixed (although they've made good progress lately):

http://bugs.debian.org/release-critical/

I tried ubuntu once. I started with warty: it had lots of bugs. Then I upgraded to a pre-release of hoary, and found a lot of those fixed.

BTW, Ubuntu does release updates after the release.

If I'm installing a desktop system, I like having it tuned for desktop use "out of the box." Ubuntu does this pretty well. If the trend continues, "breezy badger" will be a pretty rockin' OS.

I think that with the fast paced development of software, to stay behind with old software and try and patch for every bug is folly. In the end, tho, debian is a more stable and easily managed system, especially if you stick with testing.