The kernel, the X.orgI realise, that the kernel and X.org are somewhat delicate things, because they affect both desktop and server. Changing them in the middle of release life, might not sound too well.
However, at least by the means of the kernel, the server world also needs new hardware support. Putting Debian on the server could get hard in the second half of release cycle.
Fortunately, upgrading the kernel dosen't break anything usually, as long as there is not some nasty bug in there. I suggest the kernel to follow the "stable tree" at kernel.org, with caution of course. If the kernel version upgrade was available eq 2 times inside stable release life, those willing to upgrade could use it, and those unvilling can stay with old version.
The kernel upgrade could fit the "volatile" philosophy IMO.As of X, it's quite complex, however it's less the server and more the desktop thing, that could also get upgraded with some caution. Might also be the concern of volatile.
Some server software occasionaly need an upgrade too.However the ordinary desktop packages, environments and so on could get upgraded routinely IMO, with easy downgrade option. No need to do the whole stabilisation scrutiny.
If some developer wishes to test the package before putting it to the repositories, he can join the upstream's beta testing to help catch the bugs before the software is "stabilised upstram".
Peter Petter Reinholdtsen wrote / napísal(a):
[Peter Tuharsky]Ask somebody, what distro would he install at desktop for novice or M$ refugee? Why many are choosing Ubuntu instead of Debian, and even worse, abandon Debian in favor of Ubuntu? Why do most people consider Debian to be user-unfriendly and server-oriented distro?Interesting analysis, with several good points on keeping the stable release working with newer hardware and keeping the software selection relevant. But my first impression after reading your long text is that you are ignoring the work going on at backports.org, and the ideas that has been floating around on making a Debian release based on the stable version for the "base" packages, and include upgraded packages like the kernel, X, Gnome, KDE and other hardware- and user-interacting packages from backports.org. You might want to have a look into those ideas. I've also seen ideas on making releases based on testing, now that we have security fixes for the packages in testing. It could give a snapshot of internally consistent packages (as opposed to unstable). Friendly,
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