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Re: Old Release



On Sunday 19 Dec 2004 21:20, Muhammad Reza wrote:
> Dear List
>
> I'm new int this list and noob in Debian, but already success install my
> first Debian Woody 3.0r3.
> My question is :

Ok, you are asking two questions here, Before answering them, can I point 
you at http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html which will make 
getting answers to your debian based questions easier. 

> 1. Why in this release, package such as KDE, XFree86..etc even the
> kernel itself seem old version.

This is because you are running woody, also known as stable. The idea behind 
stable is that it is very stable, stable enough to run for years without 
crashing, stable enough that you could forget your root password to a woody 
server and it wouldn't be a problem, stable enough that the very earth 
could be rent asunder a woody box and it wouldn't fall over. 

Because most people don't have the need for such a platform, and would 
prefer a more up to date packages, debian has two other streams. They are 
called steams because your can't really install them. Instead you install 
stable and then jump on a stream. 

The two streams:

Testing aka Sarge

This is the next stable release and the debian devs upload new packages in a 
effort to fix all the bugs in it. It will be released to replace woody at 
some point.

unstable aka sid

This is where the newest packages are tested. Unstable is very cutting edge, 
with new versions as up to date as possible. to give an example of this, 
when kde 3.3 was released, it was in unstable before any other distro had 
it. 

More information about both streams is just a google away.

to switch to one of the two streams open the file /etc/apt/sources.list and 
change all references to stable with testing or unstable. Then run apt-get 
update && apt-get dist-upgrade . Warning: this may well break your system. 

once again, more information is a google away

> 2. How to made my own linux disto from debian ? please give me reference.
>

in general, everyone running debian has it customised in some way, ranging 
from different packages to different configuration options. You could look 
at ubuntu or knoppix for examples of very well customised debian distros 

> regards
> reza

All the best

Pete



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