Re: etch

[hendrik@topoi.pooq.com]

On Thu, Mar 23, 2006 at 12:09:12PM -0500, Kevin Mark wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 23, 2006 at 05:14:33PM +0100, Florian Kulzer wrote:
> > Jim Woodward wrote:
> > >I have testing in my sources.list.
> > >Does this mean I am running etch?
> > >I am running kernel 2.6.15.6
> > >If I am not running etch, how can I upgrade without a new installation?
> > 
> > If you started out with testing in your sources.list or if you did a
> > dist-upgrade since you included it, then you should indeed be running
> > Etch. The fact that you are using a 2.6.15 kernel suggests it, too.
> > 
> > Simply look at the output of "cat /etc/issue" to be sure. Another
> > characteristic thing is your version of libc6; "apt-cache policy libc6"
> > will tell you what it is and where it came from.
> > 
> > Regards,
> >             Florian
> Hi *,
> the way I look at it, you can run a moving-target stream of debian, a
> pre-stable stream (aka testing) or a stable 'release' (aka woody,sarge).
> if 'stable', 'testing' or 'unstable' are in your sources.list, you are
> running a 'moving-target' system. If you run 'etch'(the current
> pre-stable) in your list, EVENTUALLY you will be running 'etch' (the
> stable release) when it becomes a stable release but until that time it
> is really 'testing' and thus 'moving-target' in the meantime.
> When a stable stream in released, it exists for a fixed time.
> this how I would see it in a time-line:
> 2004            2005                         2007
> <-unstable,testing,stable---------------> always changing
> x-woody----------------------x unchanging
> x-pre-sarge------x always changing
>                  |
>                  x-sarge---------------------x unchanging
>                  x-pre-etch-------------x always changing
>                                         |
>                              unchanging x-etch----------------x
> so by using 'etch', on my diagram I see it as 'pre-etch'.
> cheers,
> Kev

If you specify "stable", though, the always changing system really moves 
hardly-at-all most of the time, and then has huge, stability-destroying 
quantum leaps avery few years.

-- hendrik