Re: My first question on Debian
On Mon, May 19, 2003 at 10:07:44PM +0800, clay@dawning.com.cn wrote:
> I know this may sound silly to your Debianers, but I really don't know
> which one to download -- there're several dirs under
> debian-unofficial:
> hurd/ potato/ sarge/ sid/ woody/
> each with some ISOs under it.
Well, hurd is for a non-Linux Debian distribution using the GNU Hurd
kernel. Probably not what you're looking for.
Potato is the previous stable version -- that is, it's as far as you
can get from "bleeding-edge" as possible.
Woody is the current "stable" distribution. Rock-solid, I use in the
server I run, but most of the software has had only security updates
for over a year. Not your thing.
Sarge is also known as "testing". It's a few weeks from bleeding
edge. It will eventually become the new "stable" release of Debian,
but right now it's where adventurous people make sure all the
components work together and bang them around.
Sid is "unstable" (just like the _Toy Story_ character of that name).
That's where "bleeding-edge" stuff is first uploaded. In principle
it should be less usable than Sarge, but in practice sometimes not.
If you want to use days-old stuff, you want Sid.
Another thing to consider: Sarge doesn't get security updates as
fast as Woody, so be really careful.
I personally just switched to Sarge on my home box, and I can attest
to the fact that it's sometimes annoying -- you do an apt-get upgrade
and software you use every day disappears, only to become available
again a few days later when library releases catch up to application
releases. (This happened with Openoffice.org, xine-ui and
avifile-player.) Don't blindly upgrade without reading the warnings!
However, for me and right now, it's worth it on this workstation to
use recent releases of software.
--
Carl Fink carlf@dm.net
Manager, Dueling Modems Computer Forum
<http://dm.net>
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