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Shows how unbearably slow Debian's release cycle is. Wheezy ships with all the latest packages from 2 years ago.

by verroq 14y ago

oinksoft 14y ago
So then run ArchLinux on your servers, and godspeed? Debian is not aimed at having the latest and greatest, but its packages do tend to be more up-to-date than RHEL/CentOS, which is its main competition in the "stable server distro that doesn't get you fired" category.
- petsos 14y ago
  So our options are either bleeding edge versions or prehistoric ones?
  - tls 14y ago
    Forgot option 3: roll your own. (e.g apt-pinning, freeze pkgs etc...etc..)
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- new299 14y ago
  Or you can just run debian testing, which is many cases is at least as stable as other distros.
twstws 14y ago
This is silly. Debian also provides rolling releases, testing and unstable. The release cycle is slow only if you ignore the constant development of Debian Sid.
- mappu 14y ago
  Right now in unstable/sid, you get the same Linux 3.2 and GNOME 3.4.
  - JoshTriplett 14y ago
    Artifact of the release process; experimental has 3.8.
    - tshepang 14y ago
      3.8 versions of Linux and GNOME :)
chrismsnz 14y ago
Unbearable for you perhaps. However, those of us with more than a few machines to look after appreciate the glacial pace and the full support of their stable platform. Change (well, poorly managed change) causes instability and issues. Debian has proven that they can manage change in their distribution and it makes everyones life easier.
shmerl 14y ago
Use Debian testing for the desktop. Desktop users don't use stable, or at least use it with backports. And what's so unbearable for the server? As others pointed out, RHEL ships even an earlier version of the kernel.
- claudius 14y ago
  My mum is quite happy with Debian stable on her desktop, and I don’t plan to switch from Wheezy to Jessie on my laptop for a while either. What’s wrong with stable on desktops?
  - shmerl 14y ago
    Software is updated too slowly, which is not the best option.
    - claudius 14y ago
      On the other hand, software is updated slowly and you don’t have to relearn stuff every six months.
  - keithpeter 14y ago
    Nothing if the software versions available are adequate for your use. Enjoy. I've been using CentOS 5.9 on a desktop quite happily, I just compiled R from source to get a more recent version. Worth mentioning that Iceweasel (aka Firefox) was on the ESR channel so getting updates fairly regularly.
- mjn 14y ago
  Testing is sometimes problematic from a security POV. Since it's considered a staging area rather than a "proper" distribution, it isn't security-managed, and occasionally vulnerabilities can persist for an extended period of time. The most common case: v1 of a package is in Debian stable. v2 comes out, is uploaded to unstable, migrates to testing. Later, v3 comes out, is uploaded to unstable, but its migration to testing is temporarily blocked because it's waiting on a major upgrade, like a new libc version, to make it into testing, which typically is done in a carefully coordinated way. Now a security issue is found affecting all versions of the package. The upstream will (hopefully) release a patched v3, which will immediately go into unstable. The Debian security team will backport the patch to v1, and make it available to Debian stable users on security.debian.org. But testing is still distributing a vulnerable v2. There is typically no process to specifically patch v2 just for testing, because testing is staged via migrations from unstable; the usual situation is just to wait for blockage to clear and for v3 to migrate. There are occasional exceptions, mostly near releases: if it's determined that v3 won't be able to migrate before the next stable, a specially patched v2 may be uploaded to testing to get it into the next stable. That scenario doesn't happen that often, but it's worth being aware that testing can lag behind both stable and unstable in security updates.
lifeguard 13y ago
Just install from 'experimental' because it isn't in the conventional sense of the word experimental..

Shows how unbearably slow Debian's release cycle is. Wheezy ships with all the latest packages from 2 years ago.

by verroq 14y ago

Shows how unbearably slow Debian's release cycle is. Wheezy ships with all the latest packages from 2 years ago.

So then run ArchLinux on your servers, and godspeed? Debian is not aimed at having the latest and greatest, but its packages do tend to be more up-to-date than RHEL/CentOS, which is its main competition in the "stable server distro that doesn't get you fired" category.

petsos 14y ago
So our options are either bleeding edge versions or prehistoric ones?
- tls 14y ago
  Forgot option 3: roll your own. (e.g apt-pinning, freeze pkgs etc...etc..)
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
new299 14y ago
Or you can just run debian testing, which is many cases is at least as stable as other distros.

twstws 14y ago

This is silly. Debian also provides rolling releases, testing and unstable. The release cycle is slow only if you ignore the constant development of Debian Sid.

mappu 14y ago
Right now in unstable/sid, you get the same Linux 3.2 and GNOME 3.4.
- JoshTriplett 14y ago
  Artifact of the release process; experimental has 3.8.
  - tshepang 14y ago
    3.8 versions of Linux and GNOME :)

chrismsnz 14y ago

Unbearable for you perhaps. However, those of us with more than a few machines to look after appreciate the glacial pace and the full support of their stable platform. Change (well, poorly managed change) causes instability and issues. Debian has proven that they can manage change in their distribution and it makes everyones life easier.

shmerl 14y ago

Use Debian testing for the desktop. Desktop users don't use stable, or at least use it with backports. And what's so unbearable for the server? As others pointed out, RHEL ships even an earlier version of the kernel.

claudius 14y ago
My mum is quite happy with Debian stable on her desktop, and I don’t plan to switch from Wheezy to Jessie on my laptop for a while either. What’s wrong with stable on desktops?
- shmerl 14y ago
  Software is updated too slowly, which is not the best option.
  - claudius 14y ago
    On the other hand, software is updated slowly and you don’t have to relearn stuff every six months.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  Nothing if the software versions available are adequate for your use. Enjoy. I've been using CentOS 5.9 on a desktop quite happily, I just compiled R from source to get a more recent version. Worth mentioning that Iceweasel (aka Firefox) was on the ESR channel so getting updates fairly regularly.
mjn 14y ago
Testing is sometimes problematic from a security POV. Since it's considered a staging area rather than a "proper" distribution, it isn't security-managed, and occasionally vulnerabilities can persist for an extended period of time. The most common case: v1 of a package is in Debian stable. v2 comes out, is uploaded to unstable, migrates to testing. Later, v3 comes out, is uploaded to unstable, but its migration to testing is temporarily blocked because it's waiting on a major upgrade, like a new libc version, to make it into testing, which typically is done in a carefully coordinated way. Now a security issue is found affecting all versions of the package. The upstream will (hopefully) release a patched v3, which will immediately go into unstable. The Debian security team will backport the patch to v1, and make it available to Debian stable users on security.debian.org. But testing is still distributing a vulnerable v2. There is typically no process to specifically patch v2 just for testing, because testing is staged via migrations from unstable; the usual situation is just to wait for blockage to clear and for v3 to migrate. There are occasional exceptions, mostly near releases: if it's determined that v3 won't be able to migrate before the next stable, a specially patched v2 may be uploaded to testing to get it into the next stable. That scenario doesn't happen that often, but it's worth being aware that testing can lag behind both stable and unstable in security updates.

lifeguard 13y ago

Just install from 'experimental' because it isn't in the conventional sense of the word experimental..