Re: Which ISO image to download ?
On Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:52:30 +0000
"Andrew M.A. Cater" <amacater@galactic.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 26, 2014 at 08:46:42AM +0200, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> > On Du, 23 mar 14, 18:31:39, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
> > > On Sun, Mar 23, 2014 at 03:17:36PM +0100, Hans wrote:
> > >
> > > > Maybe I should suggest to use at least a newer kernel for
> > > > installer CD's to the installer team?
> > >
> > > Please don't. The whole point of debian-stable is to remain
> > > stable through the lifetime of a release.
> >
> > https://lists.debian.org/debian-backports/2014/01/msg00063.html
> >
>
> Thanks for this - I was unaware of it. I stand by what I said, though
> I do understand the issue of lack of support for newest hardware.
>
> Maybe we need the option of a "release and a half" periodically but in
> this instance, I think we'd need to make it clear that this might not
> be quite as supportable.
>
> If anything, the thing that gets you is non-free firmware - WiFi cards
> and the like where the firmware really isn't available yet - some
> very recent Realtek chipsets, for example.
>
It's a matter of horses for courses, and Debian already provides three
horses, for different running conditions. If none of them are right,
there are many other distributions, quite a lot of them derived from
Debian.
My workstations run unstable, which has its problems but isn't too bad
if you don't upgrade all of your machines on the same day... it's about
as up-to-date as anything can be, though may still have issues with
new hardware. This workstation is currently running kernel 3.13.
My server runs Debian stable, and it is. Andrei mentioned that it
remains stable (that's software composition and versions, running
stability goes without saying these days, even for Windows) for its
release lifetime, but it has the other unusual feature that at the end
of that lifetime, it can be upgraded to the next version. Guaranteed.
Every time. Unless, of course, you migrate to a different CPU
architecture, when there is no way around reinstalling.
But reinstalling a server is not something that anyone contemplates
lightly, and this is a really, really desirable feature of stable. It's
quite unusual for people to hang cutting-edge hardware on a server, or
indeed any peripherals beyond printers and drives. Mine doesn't
normally have a monitor connected, and certainly contains nothing as
vulgar as a graphical desktop, so doesn't exactly stress its
motherboard video hardware. Unusually, it does have sound (on USB), but
that isn't exactly state-of-the-art.
If you have 'difficult' hardware, get hold of the latest Knoppix and see
how it's done. Knoppix is also Debian-derived, but lives at the other
end of the spectrum from stable, being mostly unstable with a few
added bells and whistles. If something has a Linux driver, Knoppix will
run it. It can be installed to a hard drive, but you are warned that it
is not maintainable. When the new version comes out, you throw the old
one away (hopefully hanging onto your data) and install the new. No
effort whatever has been spent making it upgradeable, which is where
much of the effort goes in standard Debian.
... you takes yer choice.
--
Joe
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