Re: Which OS?

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

On Sat, Mar 31, 2007 at 07:39:09PM +0200, Joe Hart wrote:
 
> If someone is looking for recent software, and stability, then Lenny
> might be an option when it comes out, but until it does, Etch might be
> the best fit.  Sid is not "frozen" as Etch is, but is very cold at the
> moment, so even Sid does not offer the newest software like it should.
> For example, OOo is 2.04 in Sid, while 2.1 has been "stable" for months
> and 2.2 just released.
> 
> The problem with Ubuntu is that while it is based on Debian, several key
> items are different (restricted modules, sudo/root, etc.) to make it not
> appealing to many Debian purists.  Sidux on the other hand offers 100%
> compatibility with Debian, and some really smart people helping smooth
> any bumps one might experience with it.  Sidux is Sid, with a custom
> kernel and a few really good scripts.
> 
> For Debian people who might be afraid of running Sid, Sidux might be
> just the answer that they were looking for.  However, I would have to
> admit that it might be dangerous, and Etch is the safe bet.  It might
> not have the latest packages, but it will work as promised.

The question for me is, what about security auditing?  Just before Etch
froze, it started to get covered by the Debian Security Team.  However,
when Etch becomes stable, it is not clear that Lenny will immediatly get
security support.  Since the debian-testing page (or notes, somewhere on
the web site) says that a testing box should not be directly connected
to the internet (except for now that Etch has security support), its not
something I would want to do.

This is what led me to my suggestion about separating the base OS from
the latest-greatest apps with a chroot.  In this case, the chroot is not
for security but to allow two different installations to coexist.  

So what is the OP looking for?

Doug.