Stable Debian == obsolete??
Hi there.
I recently decided to give Debian a try, expecting that it would be the best distro for me if it where the half good technically than it is 'spiritually' =)
I eated the FAQ (yep, *ALL* of it) and other install docs, jigsaw'd the first disc of the stable release (Woody 30r1 - i386), as I intend to deploy it in several production servers, and fired up the installation.
The installer script got broken after not finding the kernel modules: it suggested me to run the "Install modules" step or something like that, but there was not such option. No problem, I finished the install manually running the other steps.
When I got to the boot loader options, I was surprised to find only lilo. I was installing to /dev/hda9, guess in wich Gb is that!! Well, ok, the release is from december past year, and the installer should be even older, so no "Grooby" loader. No problem, I skipped the loader install, got into my already installed grub shell and manually loaded the Debian install kernel. After that, I installed grub, wich was included in the 30r1 disc.
xdm had crashed, but hey, I have comed to *luuuuuv* configuring X at hand, overclocking my monitor resolution. But no configuration could make it run:
--
This is a pre-release version of XFree86, and is not supported in any
way.
...
XFree86 Version 4.1.0.1 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6510)
Release Date: 21 December 2001
--
That will not run in most video cards I use.
After fiddling around a lil more, I decided that something was wrong, maybee my Debian mirror was not really up to date; but not, it just seems to me that Woody is Way Too Oldy (TM).
Well, thats my sad history ;-P
But, of course, I'm pushing the reset, and starting again. But would like some guidance this time.
The "Getting Debian" page mentions that:
A network installation of the "testing" distribution will provide you with the very latest packages, whereas any CD images of "testing" that you download would be outdated very quickly.
So the network installation of Sarge is my new bet. But I want to know, how really unstable is it? I don't think most people could live with Woody, so is it test the most used distro?
I have lurked the release information, and have not seen any bug that scares me, but any warnings regarding the Athlon XP Thoroughbred, Geforce 4 Ti, emacs, PostgreSQL, perl and any other indispensable program would be preciated.
I would also suggest stating more prominently the age of Woody and the prices that its stability entails.
Thanks!
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