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Sidux is for newbies who want to feel tough, Sid is for competent people. Right now, with the Lenny freeze, Sid is actually very stable. In a few months, though, that may well not be the case.
I've been running sid (unstable) for close to 7 years and in that time I've only had one major hiccup in stability when they switched from the 2.4 kernel to the 2.6 kernel, other than that its been great.
Actually, I am running both sid and sidux atm, namely sidux on my laptop to ensure consistant wireless connections, and sid on the pc in my office. I enjoy them both equally, there was a time where I held my breath at dist-upgrading sid, but with smxi (sidux upgrading tool) I can dist-upgrade without all the stress.
Smxi is really a nice tool to compliment any (rolling release) debian distributions. Check it out!
Okay, I had a nice long look at this Sidux thing and in my opinion this is what I think;
You can add Sidux repositories to a normal Debian Sid system and install all the stuff that Sidux has (It isn't a lot).
Sidux relies directly on Debian Sid for everything but "pretty" bootloaders, some scripts, kernels and wallpapers. All it looks like to me is that Sidux is trying to highjack the main software and just add a tiny amount at the end and call it a new distro. I don't even see how this can be called a fork.
Given this approach, all one would have to do to create a new distro is make a few bootloaders, scripts and wallpapers with the new logo on it (I think I'll call mine Lazy Linux). The features will be;
1. The user will not have to customize their desktop anymore, my lazy scripts will customize it for them, given one of 4 possible theme configurations. (all with the same logo, only the color changes)
2. The user's sources.list will be locked to stable to "preserve the stability" of the system, (and when the lazy linux server mirrors testing the user won't realize where the updates are actually coming from)
3. Lazy Linux slogan "It isn't a bug, It's a feature!!"
sidux also has its own kernel, releases bug fixes a lot of the time before they hit sid, sends patches upstream. sidux is a lot more than just a few scripts and wallpapers. BTW the default wallpapers suck I use mostly Cathbard's. If you took the time to look at the forum/manual and the entire sidux page you would know it is debian Sid that's the point it is Sid that is stable and easy enough for anyone to use.
You want to run sid go ahead, I run sid with the sidux kernel and a couple other packages on my Eee,on my desktops I run sidux.
Why should I use sidux? What will sidux do for me? Can sidux be explained in a few words?
Slam wrote a post on 9.12.2006, that might answer your questions:
If your favorite application has just been released in version 3.0 and you read about it in the news, you can normally find it:
* with sidux/Debian Sid within days;
* with Debian Testing within some weeks;
* with Ubuntu within weeks or months (maybe never due to a much smaller package base); and
* with Debian Stable (also known as Etch, and Testing also known as Lenny) within a year or so and install and use it properly.
Your choice should be made based upon your need or liking to use newest versions of applications with latest features. So much for up-to-dateness. Stuff that is a year old and well tested obviously will have not only less features but also less undetected bugs.
If security is your top priority, you can only choose
* as a much advanced user Debian Stable + lots of knowledge and manual configuration;
* as a normal user only sidux + weekly dist-upgrades.
If stability is your main concern (because, for example, your box controls cardiac pacemakers), you can't do without Debian Stable -cleanly installed and set up it will run 100% stable- guaranteed. That's why it is used in mission critical surroundings.
So, you will have to find your personal balance between up-to-dateness, security and stability, and then base your system on that decision.
Remark: All these comments apply to the usage of Debian or Debian-based or -forked distributions Besides that, of course, there are numerous highly specialized distributions out there in the Debian and Linux world.
Short answer if you know what your doing in debian , including how to build your own kernel, then you probably won't see the need for sidux. If not and you want to run Debian Sid then sidux is for you. Like most of the 400+ distros fills a needed place in the Linux world.
I prefer to install SID in a really minimal version and add drop after drop what we really need to test new possibilities or work with new software versions.
This way is easy and I find it would be better don't to produce more and more distributions with the same purpose but new problems.
SID is fast and easy to install with the little netinstall ISO / CD in paycard size (35 Mb).
using this way, you need only small partitions (only about 2 Gb), this means that a really cheap USB stick is enough to test and test new software or completely new configurations.
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