hi

When is squeeze planed to be stable?
How to be informed by mail about new stable debian?

It says on http://www.debian.org/releases/
It's only a few months since Lenny became stable. Etch took 3 years! There is no (!!) notification service... Debian is ready when it's ready. Live with it, it's not gonna change just for you... If you want stable, use Lenny or even Etch. If you want the latest and greatest Linux has to offer, use Ubuntu or Sidux. Or, if you really want to (can't think of any reason, but the choice is yours) Fedora, Suse or Mandriva. But Mint and Knoppix are better choices then though

Expected to be released in early 2010, see http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090729
From what I gather lurking in #debian the proposed freeze is for march 2010 will a release date sometime around 6-9 months later.

I usually wait some 4 to 6 months or so after an official release of Stable before dist-upgrading to Testing. Then I feel Testing is fairly 'stable'. And it is. I've been using Squeeze/Testing for a while. Hasn't failed me yet. I've done this since Etch.

I installed Etch while it was still Testing some months after the 'Official' release of Stable. Did the same with Lenny and now with Squeeze.

I feel rather comfortable waiting a few months before dist-upgrading and using Testing. Pretty safe to use Testing then.

But like it was reported, can't bank on the date for the Official Release date of the next Stable. Debian will do so when it's ready. Sometimes it comes in on time. Most of the time it doesn't. Don't let that stop you from using it. Many folks love Debian Testing.

A lot of what you say seems exaggerated to me, but this part is defnitely false. The OP asked about mail (not a personal notification service, whatever that is), and there is a Debian mailing list for exactly the purpose of making major announcements: http://lists.debian.org/debian-announce/

Here's the announcement of Lenny, as an example. (It was actually released in February - 5.0.3 was released in September, but the initial release was February of 2009.)

telemachos wrote "A lot of what you say seems exaggerated to me,..."
though i, humbling through the very basics of bits and bytes, have to agree that knoppix it the better choice...
better than ubuntu (or sidux).
for debian-stable there are the backports...

Bout the "when its ready". Though the freezes are set fixed now ( to all two years when the moon is full and shuttleworth is in the mood for a dance) the old way "when its ready" is still valid for the release ->
is that correct?

@cccc, as soon someone is able to know it you would get to know it from the tattletale forums.debian. brand-new enough for me (but i got problems with the mailing-lists, so perhaps you may win some minutes here)
just kidding.

off-topic
@tele: hi part-of-my-team-member (but merely a leader to me) tele, i havent seen you here for a while, though i was hoping to. i hope you know (somehow) what i mean. greetings markus

Here's one thing I've never been able to figure out about Linux users - and folks, I fell into that same trap early on; If Win XP, which has been with us for, what?, some 8 or 9 years, is still a viable OS (and it is and will be for many years to come), why can't Lenny which just came out in Feb. of '09 be a good usable OS for several more years? Why do some think they have to have the latest and greatest available? Does it really matter that you don't have Open Office 3.0 rather than version 2.4? Or what ever? Of course not!

Yes, Linux is speeding along at blazing speeds. The kernels and apps associated with it are constantly being updated and upgraded. Why can't Debian or any other distro just 6 months old be a good usable OS for years to come? The answer is, of course they can. But then again that's what Linux is all about. Isn't it? Being at the bloody edge. Thankfully that's not for me.

I finally got tired of reinstalling or upgrading every 6 months. I want to USE my Linux operating system. That's why I'm sticking with Debian Proper. Upgrading to the next version every 2 to 3 years is good enough for me.

What I do is this: When Debian announces a final official release of their latest, I'll wait a few months (4 to 6 mos.) and dist-upgrade to Testing. I do it every two or three years. Works just find for me.

Nothing like the stability of Debian. So what if the apps are just a tad behind the curve? Stability, stability, stability. Nothing like a distro that's rock solid. Via Debian!

THX

Getting the latest linux distro sometimes means better support though. One of the everlasting problems is Wireless! Also EXT4 is out, and some other new implaments. There is always a new feature that makes life easier, it all depends on how lazy you want to be....

To answer this question of yours, when a new OS like XP comes out, it has certainly a lot of new features which have to be implemented in Linux for compatibility reasons, like file formats and protocols. In course of time, service packs get released which add other drivers, formats and protocols.

As soon as that happens, thousands of people involved in Linux development have to start reading specs, reverse engineering, design and code to keep up with just the last release of Windows. During this development time, bit by bit issues are getting resolved and incompatibilities are solved. This goes for the latest proprietary WMA format as well as for the latest ACNE network card driver.

So if you are running a laptop you are more or less forced to use a testing version, and running a desktop you often have to because of the file formats. How often haven't you cursed when someone e-mailed you a docx format?

The main problem is that Linux is almost always lagging, and a user wants to make the gap as short as possible. Quite understandable. It is not Linux' fault. As soon as a standard is published you see that Linux implementations are much faster released than their Windows counterparts. Like 64-bit kernel and USB 3.0.

If you want to run a server, forget anything else but Stable. But there are reasons to track Testing on certain machines. There is nothing wrong with the Debian release rate. I am running Testing now on this machine, and I am quite surprised that other distro's dared to release this software as stable (mainly KDE4) over a year ago. I am quite happy that this is Testing, not Stable. I have a choice.

jlinkels

You dist-upgrade to testing? Surely that is a typo? Do you mean you dist-upgrade to the latest stable?

Can you confirm this?

Cheers,

Evo2.

No, I dist-upgraded to Testing/Squeeze. I had Lenny on my machine while it was still considered Testing. I continued using Lenny for several months after it was declared Stable. I then changed my sources.list to Squeeze and did an apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade to get my PC on board with the 'New' Testing. In this case Squeeze.

I've been using the Testing version of Debian ever since Etch. Matter of fact, that was my first full introduction to Debian. I had played with Debian before but never stuck with it. (I hopped distros a lot back then.) When I decided to give my full attention to Debian, Etch was several months into Testing and thus pretty 'stable'.

Since then I've always done it this way. Wait a few months after the official release of the new Stable version and move on to Testing. So in effect, I've been using the Debian Testing branch since Etch. Just keep in mind to wait a few months before doing so. Things are pretty settled by then.


Keep in mind that if you are using Testing, when it's officially released it will be the new Stable. So it's important to change your sources.list to the code name rather than the word 'Testing'. One could be 'kicked' up to the new Testing branch.

And then you don't upgrade again until, a few months after the next stable release? That is truly bizarre. The packages you will be using will only be a few months newer than those in stable and you will have no security updates. What is you motivation for doing this?

You could at least keep your machine up to date with what ever is in testing at the time. Granted there are no security updates in testing so you have to wait for them to trickle down from unstable, but it has to be better than waiting a whole release cycle before your next upgrade.

Don't worry you'll never catch me using testing. Been happy with sid for 10 years, and have no plan on changing.

Cheers,

Evo2.

Bah stable is too old, and testing has the weird habit of having packages removed. Run sid .
Sure if you run a server you want stable, but if you run debian on a desktop/laptop you want sid.

At the beginning, once a Stable release is announced, both versions are fairly close. As time goes on, Testing progresses. Updating apps, kernel, etc to newer versions. So you might start out with OpenOffice 2.4 for example but end up with OpenOffice 3.0. Or, in the case of Squeeze, with Gnome 2.26 and end up with Gnome 2.28. And so on. And so forth. That's why I wait for a while before dist-upgrading to the new Testing.

Since it's Testing, those upgrades are taken slowly and with assurance. As Debian is well know for. And as for security updates, since Etch -I believe-, they are now included in Squeeze. Or whatever version Testing might be. So there are security updates in the Testing branch. Wasn't so way back. But it is now. Security is not an issue in Testing. Is sucerty as good as in Stable? I can't say. But I do get security updates in Testing.

No sir, in my opinion, Testing is fairly stable. Especially for a home desktop. Not for a business critical application. I sure as hell wouldn't use testing in my business. But certainly for home use.

As far as Unstable (Always know as Sid), that's just too bleeding edge for me. But to each his own. Anything can happen with Unstable/Sid. And yes, I've played around with Sid. Used it for a while. Thank you but no thanks. And I don't want to hear about sudix. That distro is still to iffy for my taste. And that's all it amount to; Just a matter of taste.

Stable is just that: Stable and Rock solid. Are Stable apps too old? Maybe so. But not by that much. Testing is the closest thing to it with newer apps and stable enough specially if you wait for a while before installing it.

And Unstable/Sid? Ugh! No sir. Been there, done that. Not for me. Too bloody for my taste. I like my steaks medium rare. Not raw and bloody.