trouble with unstable

[Neal Murphy <neal.p.murphy@alum.wpi.edu>]

Before I start, I do know that unstable is just that: not guaranteed to be 
usable in any way, shape or form.

That said, unstable has been amazingly stable (for the parts of it that I use) 
for well over a year, perhaps closer to two. I've been using it because I 
need the 2.6.10/2.6.11 kernel (dues to a USB bug in previous 2.6 kernels - 
turning off my USB hard drive or DVD drive causes the system to hang when it 
tries to clear the device out of the kernel. And yes, the bug is in the 2.6.8 
kernel available in stable.); I also need the latest OpenOffice due to bugs 
in prior versions.

In the past, I've encountered the occasional broken dependencies, which have 
usually been corrected in a week or three. But unstable has generally worked 
fairly well. Until recently.

Something is causing most packages, including KDE, OpenOffice, and a bunch of 
other stuff, to be removed. A simple 'Update Package List" in dselect 
triggered the mass changes.

I know I can't call this a 'problem' because of the very nature of 'unstable'. 
But I think I can reasonably ask, "Was this effect expected? Or intended?" 
I'm assuming it was inadvertent, considering the general reliability of 
unstable over the past couple years.

Whatever the case may be, does anyone have any idea when unstable might again 
be (dare I say it?) stable?

Thanks!
Neal