On Wed, Mar 15, 2006 at 02:13:51AM +0200, Andrei Popescu wrote:
>On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 00:59:08 +0100
>Florian Kulzer <florian@molphys.leidenuniv.nl> wrote:
>
>> Joey Hess wrote:
>> > Florian Kulzer wrote:
>> >
>> >>I would go so far as to say that "Debian Unstable" is an oxymoron.
>> >
>> >
>> > From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
>> >
>> > unstable
>> > ...
>> > 6: subject to change; variable; "a fluid situation fraught with
>> > uncertainty"; "everything was unstable following the coup"
>> > [syn: {fluid}]
>>
>> Uh-oh, I obviously should consult a dictionary before shooting off my
>> mouth like that...
>>
>> In my defense, I am a chemist and this seems to have determined my
>> interpretation of the term:
>>
>> 4. Chemistry
>> a. Decomposing readily.
>> b. Highly or violently reactive.
>>
>> (from dictionary.reference.com)
>>
>> Regards,
>> Florian
>
>When you talk about computers, "unstable" usually doesn't mean anything good, so I don't think your interpretation was bad ;) something like:
>
>"X. Computers
> usually refers to a computer/OS/application that crashes, often
> without any (apparent) reason ..."
I've had to explain to a manager or two that when Debian uses "unstable"
it doesn't quite mean what people have become used to. When a certain
company based in Redmond says "unstable" they really mean UNSTABLE.
(OTOH when they say "stable" they come close to Debian's use of
"unstable" :-)
/M
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Magnus Therning (OpenPGP: 0xAB4DFBA4)
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