how stable is testing?

["Gilbert, Joseph" <jgilbert@insuresuite.com>]

Hi all,

So, I'm sure this has been discussed before but I would like to get some
up-to-date input on this.

I have been administering a Debian network for about a year and a half now.
>From my experience, stable does not have a quick path to getting version
updates incorporated into it.  This makes for a hassle if you want to run,
for instance, an up to date sendmail server.  I have seen this sort of
problem on a number of my servers.  My solution (probably the wrong one) has
been to update whatever I needed to from testing and slag through whatever
conflicts resulted from the mixed system.

It seems that if I want to have things run smoothly when I am upgrading or
installing new packages, it is best to either use one or the other.  So, my
question basically is testing generally good enough for most standard server
implementations?  What sort of uptimes can be expected?  I know this is a
general question since it will depend a lot on what I am doing with these
servers and how heavily they are hit, etc.

Joe