Re: What version of debian should I install at this point in time?

[Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>]

On Sat, Nov 22, 2008 at 10:49:18AM -0500, Chris Jones wrote:
...
> I have heard that Lenny will soon replace Etch as the stable version.

Yes.
 
> Should I wait a bit, or is there any way I can "finalize" my Lenny
> install at a later date without having to reinstall?

Here is the simplest way:

Your /etc/apt/sources.list or  /etc/apt/sources.list.d/* should contain
only line relaed to lenny with its codename such as:

deb http://cdn.debian.or.jp/debian/ lenny main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org/ lenny/updates main contrib
...

I mean do not use "sid". (Although you do not need to reinstall, you may
need to downgrade part of system to make it 100% lenny).

You can update system as you wish with:

 $ sudo aptitude update; sudo aptitude full-update

After lenny release, update system to sync completey with released lenny
contents with:

 $ sudo aptitude update; sudo aptitude full-update

If I were you, I will also replace etch with squeeze (next testing) or
sid (unstable) after you migrate all main activity to your new lenny
system.  Sid is always the latest :-)  See:

 http://people.debian.org/~osamu/pub/getwiki/html/ch03.en.html#lifewitheternalupgrades

Cheers,

Osamu

PS: Installing sid works very well now since we are under freeze (I use
it).  But if you do this, your should expect major package updates of
archive right after the release.  I usually stay away from upgrades
until major packages are stabilized after the release.