Re: Debian Sarge to Etch
On Sat, Jul 23, 2005 at 12:22:05AM +0100, Philip Radford wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Are the packages from Etch available to be installed on a Sarge installation. I may be getting myself confused as there is also reference to Sid which may or may not be Etch before it is officially made stable.
>
> Can anybody clarify this for me.
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Regards
> Phil
>
This is not an official response to the question.
A few weeks ago, Sarge was officially released as the new stable version of Debian.
At that moment, Sarge and Etch were de facto identical. Any package that was valid
for Sarge was also valid for Etch. But Sarge is stable. That means that it does not
change unless there is a recently discovered security issue that can be fixed with
a patch to a few packages. And Etch is testing. That means that it does change as
new versions of packages become available and are included. The whole process is
gradual, but over time, the two will become less and less similar. But both will
be Debian. And, no matter what happens to Etch, it will be possible to upgrade from
Sarge to Etch by using apt-get dist-upgrade. If the developers discover that they
have wandered into a corner where this is not possible, there will be a LOT OF
NOISE AND SHOUTING. You will know about it.
No one can know the future, but within that constaint, Debian trys to make the
transition from one distribution smooth and gradual. And the
underlying reality of the Debian system makes that realistically possible.
So, think what is it that you are worried about? Etch will eventually become the
official stable version of Debian. Before this happens, you may wish to use some
packages from Etch. How badly do you want them? Badly enough to help debug them?
How much pain are you willing to endure? How much pain will you have to endure?
It depends on which packages you want and what is your threshold of pain. I
guess that nothing about using Etch will be life threatening. So go for it.
--
Paul E Condon
pecondon@mesanetworks.net
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