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