Unstable ==> Testing ==> Stable

[rhkramer@gmail.com]

Aside: for my own self respect, I want to make some sort of disclaimer here 
(with maybe several points):  I'm sure that sometimes I post things that do 
any of (1) make other people cringe (for one reason or another), (2) make me 
look uninformed (or worse), and (3) other causes for embarrassment (to myself 
of others).

I finally realized that the "normal" progression / hierarchy of the Debian 
releases is from Unstable to Testing to Stable.

I never looked it up -- I assume that, like most people, we don't look up 
everything but make assumptions based on past experience.  I expected that the 
normal progression for Debian releases would be from Testing (trying all / any 
kind of new, possibly weird things), to Unstable (concentrating on things that 
survived some initial testing and now maybe being released to a select group 
for some real pounding en route to Stable.

(I've never used anything other than stable releases, so my misunderstanding 
hasn't had any real world effect on my systems, but I have been confused at 
times, and suspect that maybe one other person out there may have similarly 
been confused.)