3 ms·

stable, by dictionary definition, means "not changing or fluctuating", no bugs would be "bug free", there is no "bug free" distro.

• jcelerier 4y ago
  it's a problem of scale: it can mean "changing or fluctuating" as in, the software itself won't change over, say, a time scale of months (what Debian means), OR "changing or fluctuating" in the sense that a stable chair does not fluctuates, breaks or tips over when you sit on it, e.g. at the time scale of an human interaction. I'd wager than people mean the latter in general with the word "stable".
  • pessimizer 4y ago
    But if they think that they can have the second definiton without the first, they're fooling themselves. The reason Debian Stable is both kinds of stable is because they test forever, eventually put the most finely tested software into a release, then keep working on fixing any bugs in that release until the next one. edit: your new, experimental chair just released yesterday may be stable enough to sit on, but it's nothing to bet on.
    • jcelerier 4y ago
      > The reason Debian Stable is both kinds of stable I stop you right there - I ran debian stable for years. Arch Linux has been so much more "stable" in terms of "less bugs and issues" for daily use it's not even funny
• CRConrad 4y ago
  To be fair, "stable" also means "can stand up without falling over", which in a computer context gives it the secondary meaning (besides "unchanging") of "doesn't crash", which is very easily interpreted by the layman as "not beset by bugs that make it crash".