Re: Eliminating upgrade confusion

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@mesanetworks.net>]

On Fri, Jun 10, 2005 at 01:57:56AM +0200, David Jardine wrote:
> The enormous confusion arising from the release of sarge seems 
> to have arisen from the use of the words "stable" and "testing". 
> 
> Somebody who was running stable didn't want woody to be replaced
> by sarge without his being asked.  Somebody running testing didn't 
> want to move from sarge to etch automatically.  (Sid seems to be 
> the only stable one.)
> 
> Wouldn't things work more smoothly if "stable" and "testing" were 
> not allowed in /etc/apt/sources.list or anywhere else except as 
> purely informative descriptions? 
> 

I am not a Debian developer. I am a user. But I know enough about
Debian to know that the stable,testing,unstable/woody,sarge,etch,sid
naming system serves the needs of the core Debian community very
well. People who say "but it's too difficult for newbies" miss the
point. It took the Debian community a while to arrive at this way of
doing things. It is a good way for a lot of people, but maybe not for
newbies who think they can create a better way through the exercise of
pure rhetoric without benefit of experience.

I take comfort in the sure knowledge that people who offer these
suggestions will _never_ become members of the inner circle that
makes Debian work.

Read the Debian documentation. Read Debian policy. Read, read, read.

Let's stop this thread. 

-- 
Paul E Condon           
pecondon@mesanetworks.net