Re: How would I get debian unstable?

[Heikki Levanto <heikki@lsd.dk>]

On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 03:26:33AM +0100, annne annnie wrote:
> 
> I'd like to use debian unstable, but I do not know how to get it. 

I guess others have already given you instructions how to get it, and
arguments why you should / should not do so. So I won't repeat them here.

> Also, why did you people choose to use debian?  Is it just better than
> other distributions?  It seems like you people are elite linux users, and I
> just wanted to the differences between debian and some other distributions.
> I haven't tried many, but to me they would all seem the same (I'm new).

Well, it all depends what you want! I am a (semi?) professional sysadmin, and
I appreciate the fact that Debian is extremely stable, and has a strict
policy on what packages should be before they are accepted into the
distribution.  That means that Debian (at least "stable" or "etch") is never
really up to the bleeding edge, which is fine for my servers. Let some other
people worry about getting things just right, and catch the last-minute
errors that always creep in. When things get into Debian/Stable, I know I can
trust them. And I can trust that when the time comes, I can upgrade to the
next stable version, without much hazzle. I have had machines in production
since stable was called potato (2003 or so, I guess), and never had to
reinstall those (except a few that were broken into). I routinely do system
upgrades on other continents (I'm located in Denmark, and I have servers in
the US), and those usually go fine.

As to my workstation(s), I prefer Debian for the simple reason that I know
and trust it so well. I tend to use a hybrid installation of
stable/unstable/sid, to get more recent packages, but I would not recommend
that for people who do not know how to handle the occasional dependenvy
problem...

For what it is worth, I have my old father running Debian/Stable, and see no
reason why I should not keep doing that for many years.


Best regards

   Heikki


-- 
Heikki Levanto   "In Murphy We Turst"     heikki (at) lsd (dot) dk