Re: Reporting bugs in Stable

[Keith Bainbridge <ke1th3216@zoho.com>]

On 20/4/20 12:26 am, Andrei POPESCU wrote:
> On Du, 19 apr 20, 09:43:46, Carl Fink wrote:
> > So this has bugged me every time I run Debian Stable: you find a bug. You
> > try to report it, and are told not to bother because there's a newer
> > version.
>
> By? I'm guessing you mean the standard request from reportbug to try a
> newer version.
>   
> > Why is reportbug even in Stable? Why not just replace it with a script that
> > says "Sorry, bugs in Stable are never fixed. Try Testing." Seriously, that's
> > literally the Debian policy, that only security fixes are done in Stable.
>
> Actually bugs of severity "important" or higher can be fixed in stable,
> provided certain criteria are met.
>   
> > So, actual question: how usable is the current Testing?
>
> It's usable, though with less guarantees. Have a backup plan in case of
> breakage. Mine is typically a paralel stable install, though other
> methods exist (e.g. snapshots)
>
> Kind regards,
> Andrei

Agree. I have had a couple of issues, but reverting a few days with my 
snapshot has saved my ....  a couple of times - not for several months 
now, though.   I use timeshift, which is usable from terminal or a live 
.iso of a linux which includes timeshift as a default. Try Mint if you 
don't have a better option.


You will get more downloads with package updates though. But that is the 
real difference between stable and testing - testing finds bits that 
still need updating. Even SID is a stable OS, just gets even more 
packages updated (from memory, packages stay in SID until about 2 weeks 
of no major issues?).



--
Keith Bainbridge

ke1th3216@zoho.com
+61 (0)447 667 468