Re: support for older distributions

[Brian May <bam@debian.org>]

>>>>> "Craig" == Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au> writes:

    Craig> debian provides mechanisms for easy upgrade between release
    Craig> versions, and we always have provided that - why complicate
    Craig> matters with branched sub-releases of old versions?

You say stable is "old". That is exactly Russell's point. Some people
want a mostly stable system, but need some up-to-date packages from
woody.

I wouldn't suggest going any further back then stable though.

    Craig> for example, ask yourself: why is libc6-2.2.2-potato1 (or
    Craig> whatever the potato version would be) any "better" or
    Craig> "safer" than just installing libc6-2.2.2 from woody or sid? 
    Craig> i can't see how it could be, and all you've achieved is
    Craig> having two divergent versions of 2.2.2 to support.

I think you missed Russell's point.  That was: compile unstable
packages against stable's libc6. So libc6 would not be included in
this list.

    Craig> debian is a "live" distribution, easily upgraded in place
    Craig> at any time over the internet - why limit yourself to
    Craig> looking at debian in a way which is more suited to
    Craig> commercial CD-ROM only closed source systems?

Because some people don't want to upgrade libc6 on a stable system
(ie.  they want a mostly stable system), but require new features of
particular packages in unstable, and are willing to risk the chance
that these new packages may be broken.

    Craig> IMO, forcing debian into that model is missing a large part
    Craig> of the point of debian.

    Craig> potato's been released. woody's getting closer to
    Craig> freeze. lets move on.

woody's release is still months away (dare I say almost a year?).

Sure, another approach is to compile your own version of the unstable
package, but Russell takes then one step further to have a central
repository for unstable package for stable. Instead of the current
situation of having many different apt repositories, each with
different selections of packages compiled for stable, you would have
one big repository that could be used by everyone.
-- 
Brian May <bam@debian.org>