We might need a better wording for our release page

[Andreas Tille <andreas@an3as.eu>]

Hi publicity folks,

I'm copying some chunks of FOSSASIA telegram channel about a "release":

Poster 1:
 funny thing i noticed, debian itself is a rolling release, but most
 derivatives r fixed. this is unlike arch where all  / most derivatives r
 rolling

I:
 Debian has *no* *official* rolling release (despite people falsely tend
 to assume testing can serve as such!)  I'm using testing myself on
 workstations but you need to know what you are doing!  Testing has no
 security support which disqualifies it as something like a "release".
 Its rolling yes, but it will never be released!
 (got a +1 for this from someone else)

Poster 1:
 gee whiz.. looking at distro watch, i can c y ppl label the unstable as
 "rolling." The stable releases are abt 1ce every 25-26mo 😳 okay, thanks
 4 the heads up andreas. thats very useful info!

Poster 2:
 Testing is more of a repo than a distro innit

I (answering Poster 1):
 Not sure who "you people" might be, but whoever labeled unstable as
 rolling release did something wrong.

 You should never ever install unstable and expect something stable -
 isn't this what the name says?

Poster 1:
 i guess the analogy is not like ubuntu where the LTS is more stable
 than the "middle" releases. thats clear

I:
 Ubuntu is doing *releases* (of different LTS status).  Debian's testing
 / unstable is just something else.

Poster 2:
 Unstable is a release, right?

I:
 **NO** its not!

Poster 2:
 Oh no it's testing

I:
 Don't touch it if you don't know what it is.
 Testing is also NOT a release (was my message above not clear enouth)

Poster 2:
 How are we defining a "release"
 There are ISOs and builds for Testing: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/daily-builds/
 https://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/testing/Release
 Testing even has a Release file


So well, that's how users are discussing with Debian developers.
I've considered pointing to

   https://www.debian.org/releases/index.en.html

but hmmm, when reading the page I can't really make my point
sufficiently clear.  Could the publicity team find some better wording
to avoid this confusion?

Kind regards
   Andreas.

-- 
https://fam-tille.de