Users new to Debian often misunderstand the various Debian repositories. Let me give you a brief description.
Stable: Debian releases a new Stable version about every two years. It is designed for servers where administrators require complete *feature* stability, meaning that they don’t want anything to change, they don’t want any new features, they don’t want to have to modify any config files to make them compatible with any changes in the software. They just want it to run and receive security updates. Very few people would be looking to run Debian Stable in a desktop environment.
Testing: Testing is a rolling release. It updates twice a day from packages that have been vetted in Unstable long enough to be considered generally usable. It is what most people are looking for if they want to use recent versions of software. Periodically, testing freezes and becomes the new Stable release. The next freeze of Testing is scheduled to begin on January 12.
https://release.debian.org/bookworm/freeze_policy.html
Unstable: Unstable is where new packages are uploaded. They sit there for a cooling-off period (the default is 5 days in most situations) and move to Testing if no significant bugs are found. Sbuild defaults to building packages using an Unstable environment.
Experimental: Unlike the other three repositories listed above, Experimental does not contain a full set of packages (meaning that you cannot install and run a full system solely from experimental). Rather, it is a supplement to Unstable. Packages in Experimental do not automatically propagate to other repositories. Developers can upload packages to Experimental that they want to make available for wider testing but which they know are in an unfinished state.
The above is just a brief summary. There is much more nuance that can be explored, including Backports (a supplementary repository of newer software that can be added on to a stable release). The first place you would want to look for more information is:
https://www.debian.org/releases/
From a personal perspective, I run all my servers and workstations on Debian Testing. I use sbuild to test packaging in a Debian Unstable environment. Other developers and users have different preferences.
On Friday, December 30, 2022 5:15:48 AM MST Barry Scott wrote:
> I have installed debian 11 (bullseye) but find that its missing packages
> that I need for my software.
>
> For example python3-pyqt6 is a must have. debian 11 only has pyqt5.
>
> What do you recommend I do to be on a debian which has the newer packages?
>
> What is the stability expectation of your recommendation?
>
> Barry
--
Soren Stoutner
soren@stoutner.com
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