In the past, I had always installed stable and moved to testing/unstable. Well I burned myself, yet again, I have decided to stick with Debian, Stable.

OK..... everyone can laugh at me.
Heh!

thank you all on this wonderful forum, and have an excellent day!!

#1 I bet you have made a LOT of smart decisions! You are, after all, still alive.

#2 Nothing wrong with moving from stable to testing. Going all the way to unstable is risky, but what is life without risk? When i want to run Unstable I go by way of a derivative distribution that adds a little stability to testing. Going all the way to SID I go by way of VSIDO, and plan on having to have backups and needed to reinstall without warning.

#3 While I love Debian, stable can roll well behind the version curve. That works for me for a server, less so for a desktop or workstation. Always remember DISTROWATCH is out there if you need something stable but less backwards. And LQ will always be here if you need a few dozen bad suggestions. ;-)

1 members found this post helpful.

No problem going to an unstable release ... in a VM that is ! Keep your stable version for the every day tasks and running those unstable spins in VMs.

The problem is that I had a stroke in 2011, and I have more than a little brain-damage due to the stroke. I used to run a steady Testing distribution for about 5 years, but my brain damage ALWAYS "bites me in the butt" and I mess up the system. So I have moved back to stable and hopefully I will not have anymore problems.

Thus, I do it to avoid having to do a reinstall every six months, or so.

{the reinstall is not much of a problem, as I make rsync-backups, and my $HOME directory is on a different drive, so no worries}

And a reinstall is somewhat chaotic as I generally do the reinstall improperly at least once {brain-damage sucks {MiCrOsOfT is worse!!!!!}}

Which is the right choice - for you, and for almost all Debian users.


The point of Debian Testing is in the name: it's for people willing and able to look for bugs and report them.

If one wants newer versions of certain software, Backports can do that without sacrificing overall stability.

If one always wants the latest up-to-date software, there are plenty of rolling release distros that would be a better choice than Debian Testing.

Using older well tested software isn't such a bad thing for the majority of desktop users, (it's what I do nowadays), why push your luck....

I am reminded of two phrases that apply:
1. why mess with what works?
2. If it ain't broke don't fix it.


If stability is your priority: RHEL is good, Rocky is good, Debian Stable is good. All have security updates for a significant lifespan but do not bug you to upgrade the system otherwise.

As long as you don't plan on running the newest stuff, you're cool. They don't call it Wheezy* for nothing. I like my computer to do anything and everything so I've had way less problems with unstable, testing even experimental. If it's not being worked on, why would it work? We can break stable and they're working on it, not to jinx us.

Computing is nothing but opinions anyway, at least we admit they're evolving ones s!

Do want to add a thought though: brains need workouts?!. ✌️🤯
I'm also curious did you start a thread and then solve it, I always love unsolvable threads that are solved...

jamison20000e:

My problem is that in 2011, I had a stroke and my brains are scrambled. Previous to the stroke I used the testing distribution on Debian.
I can no longer deal with risk, but I still "love" the testing distro but like every six months it gets all screwed up and I have to do a reinstall, and my computer is {out of commission} for about two days or so, as I set things up again.

So, in the end, it is a safety thing.....

2 members found this post helpful.

I've ran Debian on Debian in a virtual machine before. (Deb on Deb ) You could run stable with (e.g:) Virtualbox running unstable and if something goes wrong there has snapshots, backups or start overs &c...

Whatever we decide enjoy right!

@kevinbenko: You are a brave man, as you have to be. A stroke is a catastrophe. I will pray for you. Be well.

If your make believe sky daddy existed praying would be blasphemy, bagging against its will!

Please be more respectful of others, particularly when they are clearly expressing goodwill toward another. No one is pushing anything on you, please reciprocate.

I don't think goodwill should be debatable. I of course hope goodwill to all, because there's right and right not just right and wrong... maybe we should keep opinions like ^gods^, religions and prayer in the threads where it belongs?!.

Thanks and sorry, won't happen again. ✌