I generally stick with 'stable' for the first year of it's release (since it's reasonably fresh) then switch to 'testing' (pretty much whenever I start reading

I generally stick with 'stable' for the first year of it's release (since it's reasonably fresh) then switch to 'testing' (pretty much whenever I start reading about new package updates that I want or need) until the next release. Then I switch back to stable... rinse and repeat. Been doing this since Debian 6 and it's worked out pretty well. 'stable' is the long term release and what you'd choose if you want a minimum of hassles. The packages are usually months (when the stable release initially occurs) to a couple of years old(at the tail end of the release just before the next stable comes out.) It's pretty much like a major OS X or Windows release from a stability standpoints and the .1... .n releases occur (i.e. like the just released 9.7) pretty regularly for at least a couple/few years after the .0 release with security and minor bug fixes. Great for servers and desktops where you want a minimum of drama. 'testing' is fairly stable (in general... Debian 10 testing has been anything but stable for me the last 6 months compared to testing leading up to previous releases) Generally, it's been integration tested (you shouldn't experience broken package dependencies) but there can and will be issues with the individual packages themselves. If you don't mind occasionally diagnosing and fixing issues, this can be a pretty good compromise between stability and package freshness. Good for development servers and desktops. Now that we're in a freeze (for Debian 10) it's reasonably safe to start looking toward testing for desktops that aren't 'mission critical' as most of the major gyrations are done and they're tightening it up for release. When Debian 10 is released, you can just change from 'testing' to 'stable' and you'll hop off the roller coaster for a while. (Note: one thing that might annoy you here is that in testing package can and do pop in and out of existence from time to time. Not frequent, but it does happen) 'sid' is the bleeding edge. You may have broken dependencies and non-functional packages. Pretty much anything can happen here... all sid guarantees is that the package built as this is where a lot of development testing occurs. Packages pop in and out of existence regularly. Not recommended for your daily driver but good for seeing what's coming and testing things out. Regular breakage will occur.