Re: Are we losing users to Gentoo?
Hi,
> Releases tend to be out of date. But that's a
> feature: releases need to be composed of well tested
stable packages.
> testing and unstable
> have pretty up to date packages. So Debian is as up
> to date as you
> want; the caveat being that for newer software,
> you'll need to put up
> with some instability.
It must said that comparing Gentoo with Debian in this
regard is unfair as they are not like for like, being
source against binary package. That said some things
(X 4.2 springs to mind) take far too long to make it
to testing.
> Presumably its up to dateness comes at the cost of
> less stability? So
> probably people should compare Gentoo not with
> Debian releases
> (stable), but with testing (or perhaps even
> unstable)? How do they
> compare then?
>
Obviously I can only speak for myself, but my Gentoo
boxes seem perfectly stable, never had a crash or lock
up yet. However, of course, this probably has more to
do with my choosen libraries, apps etc. Had sources
not build for one reason or another, but I have so far
found these problems easily fixed.
>
> Maybe there's some case for making a regular (once
> every couple of
> months or so) "State of Testing" announcement,
> describing the major
> features of testing, together with how to install it
> (either "install
> stable release, then change /etc/apt/sources.list
> thusly, then do
> "apt-get update; apt-get dist-upgrade", or perhaps
> actually preparing
> a Knoppix ISO containing testing). On the other
> hand, maybe this
> wouldn't be much use to anyone.
>
I would agree that this might not be of much use to
people. I think the best objective maybe to try and
do at least 1 release a year, which is enough for most
people. Do we gain much from this, well probably not
directly no, however it "looks good". I think some of
the current issues related to the fact that Debian is
seen as the snail of the pack when it comes to
releases. Yes sure this is pandering to the masses a
bit but it ensures that Debian stays in the limelight.
Gotta go, think more about this later
Jon
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