Re: When stability is pointless
On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 12:13:42AM +0000, Sam Kuper wrote:
> When 'stable' packages don't work, or are inadequately documented, it's a
> pain because the upstream developers (who are otherwise often the first port
> of call for help and documentation) may no longer support the version of the
> software that the stable package installs.
If a 'stable' package doesn't work, blame the upstream developer for
releasing a non-working package. Whatever the problem, it wasn't
considered 'release-critical' or it wouldn't have made it into stable in
the first place. Those of us who run 'stable' run it because things
don't change much. If you want more recent packages, run testing or
unstable (or experimental if you want).
Read the debian policy manual (package debian-policy).
On a debian system, your first port-of-call for help is this the bug
tracking system. There are various ways to access the list of bugs for
a package. You can google site:lists.debian.org to see if the problem
has alread been discussed, and if not, post a good question to this
list.
doug.
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