Which OS? Was "I do consider Ubuntu to be Debian" , Ian Murdock

[Douglas Allan Tutty <dtutty@porchlight.ca>]

On Tue, Mar 27, 2007 at 05:41:45AM -0700, Michael M. wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-03-26 at 16:42 -0400, Michael Pobega wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:35:02AM -0700, Michael M. wrote:

> > If Debian worried about sticking to a schedule rather than worrying
> > about the stability of the product, you'd hear about a few more
> > missing astronauts and a couple of billion dollars gone from (I'm
> > going on a limb here) some bank data centers. Obviously this is all
> > worst case scenario, but it's what Debian is primarily made for.
> 
> Which begs the question, "Is Debian made for me?"
> 
 
> What has made Debian a great fit for me over the past months is its
> beefed up efforts to make testing a more viable option for users (for
> example, by providing security updates for testing).  I started using
> Etch some months ago, perhaps close to a year ago, pulling in just a few
> packages from unstable, and it has been a great fit for me.  Until the
> past few months, when it has increasingly come to seem stale to me.
> It's only natural, then, for me to question whether *I* really fit in
> with your definition of "We the Debian people."
> 

Why don't we reframe this as:  What is the best OS/Distro for Michael?

Perhaps you have some conflicting needs that requires a non-standard
answer?  I _think_ that what I hear that you want is:
	
	More recent software than what is in stable or testing (when its
	frozen).

	Less dynamic than Sid

What about:
	
	Debian stable or testing to run your hardware with a *buntu in a
	chroot?  Gives you a base OS that won't crash but more recent
	software.

Is Linux for you?  What about one of the BSDs?  I've been looking at
OpenBSD; they release every 6 months (their Release is like Debian's
Stable), with security update (source patches) as necessary.  Following
every security update even if it doesn't apply to you, you end up
running their Stable.  Their Current is like Debian's Sid. 

They can release every 6 months because they only focus on the main OS.
Third-party stuff (upstream) is in packages (binary) and ports (source
tarballs pre-tweaked to compile properly on a given release level).
Using the ports and packages system is supposed to be similar to
using aptitude from the command line.  It brings in whatever
dependancies there are, compiles anything required, and installs it.
It also will uninstall.

It sounds to me like this may be a viable option for you:

	Stable, reliable, OS

	Upgraded every 6 months

	Fairly recent third-party software.

So tell us what your ideal OS would be and do.  There's enough cross-OS
experience on this list to give good suggestions.

I'm not marking this thread as OT since a discussion on why Debian may
not be working for someone, and what a user's needs are, is important
for Debian folks.  So lets _not_ have a flame fest.  Lets help a debian
user with a fundamental problem: his OS isn't doing what he needs it to
do.

Doug.