faq on choosing a debian distribution - draft 1
Hi all
I read this list regularly. I find that people who want to try
Debian for the first time are often confused about the fact the there
are three debian distributions and do not know which one to choose. As
usual, everyone wants to do the right thing the first time. I made
this small FAQ to help them and would like to seek your expert
opinions. This is just a rough draft and will post the updated version
next week after receiving suggestions from all of you.
My questions are
1) Is it worth to make such a document/HOWTO? Do you think it will be
useful/useless?
2) Obviously the set of questions is not a complete list. I would like
to receive suggestions about new questions. If you can attach both
question and corresponding answers that would be great.
3) Any other advice?
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choosing a debian distribution
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1. How many Debian distributions are there?
Read http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-dists
. As it says, Debian comes in 3 distributions - stable, testing, unstable.
2. Which Debian distribution is better for me?
The answer is a bit complicated. It really depends on what you intend to do. The
best solution would be to ask a friend who runs debian. The following are
intended to supplement the information.
If you are worried about security and stability issues, install stable. period.
This is the most preferred way.
If you are a little bit daring, adventurous and do not mind having a system that
breaks once in a while then use unstable. Unstable is for experts who know what
they do.
If you are unsure, stick with the stable distribution.
If you are new to Debian, install stable.
3. You asked me to install stable, but in stable so and so hardware is not
detected/working. What should I do?
Try to google around and see if someone else is able to get it working in
stable. Most of the hardware would work fine with stable. But if you have one of
those state-of-the-art cutting edge hardware, it might not work with stable. If
this is the case, you might want to install/upgrade to unstable.
4. Will there be different different versions of packages in different
distributions?
Yes. Unstable has the most recent (latest) versions. But the packages in
unstable are not well tested and might have bugs.
On the other hand, stable contains old versions of the package. But this
package is well tested and (99.999999%) will not have any bugs.
For example, when I started writing this document the different versions of apt
package are as follows
stable --- 0.5.4.0.1
testing --- 0.5.27
unstable --- 0.6.25
5. If I were to decide to change to another deistribution, Can I do that?
It is a one way process. You can go from stable --> testing --> unstable.
But the reverse direction is not "possible". So better be sure if you are
plannning to install/upgrade to unstable.
6. Did anyone really ask these questions?
Oh yeah. Too many to list here. Read the debian-user mailing list archive and
you know what I am talking about.
7. I am still confused. What did you say I should install?
The safest bet would be stable distribution
--
Kamaraju S Kusumanchi
Cornell University
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/kk288/
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