3 ms·

I agree. I think they should switch to at least Debian testing, if not Sid. There's really nothing to be gained by staying, especially since Mint is currently a

I agree. I think they should switch to at least Debian testing, if not Sid. There's really nothing to be gained by staying, especially since Mint is currently at the top of Distrowatch. I use Arch, and I find rolling to be amazing. I love it when I run updates and I get an upgrade to my DE without having to go through a 30-minute or longer upgrade process.

kijin 13y ago
The problem with using Sid is that it's, you know, unstable. Ubuntu does a lot of work to stabilize Sid before each release. If Mint did the same, there would be a lot of duplicated effort so they might as well just use Ubuntu as a base. The problem with using Debian testing is that it gets stuck in a freeze for 6-10 months every 2 years. It's like stop-and-go traffic. And then, right after a release, testing becomes flooded with so many new packages that it becomes difficult to test them for security or stability. A few serious breaks in the past forced LMDE to adopt an "update pack" approach that lags Debian testing by a few weeks. If the "always-releasable Debian testing" [1] idea becomes reality, it might be possible to have Linux Mint follow Debian testing and still be highly stable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5686872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5686872
- dfc 13y ago
  I have used sid as my main desktop for over a decade now. To be honest I actually run a mixed system with a few packages (not just one-offs but big things like xmonad/iceweasel/awesome/git/pandoc/git-annex/gitit) from experimental. If it has been a long time (5-7 years) since you tried unstable you can think of experimental as what unstable used to be. When was the last time you tried sid? When I first made the switch from RH to debian there were occasional issues but these went away as I became more experienced with debian. It has been years since I encountered a bug that caused me to lose more than an hour of productivity. The most recent issue that I have had with unstable was over a year ago and it was simply a matter of pinning a version of libcairo. The only reason I remember this so well is that someone else on HN was having trouble and my comment[1] on how to fix it was my highest rated comment at the time. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3907796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3907796

kijin 13y ago

The problem with using Sid is that it's, you know, unstable. Ubuntu does a lot of work to stabilize Sid before each release. If Mint did the same, there would be a lot of duplicated effort so they might as well just use Ubuntu as a base. The problem with using Debian testing is that it gets stuck in a freeze for 6-10 months every 2 years. It's like stop-and-go traffic. And then, right after a release, testing becomes flooded with so many new packages that it becomes difficult to test them for security or stability. A few serious breaks in the past forced LMDE to adopt an "update pack" approach that lags Debian testing by a few weeks. If the "always-releasable Debian testing" [1] idea becomes reality, it might be possible to have Linux Mint follow Debian testing and still be highly stable. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5686872 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5686872

dfc 13y ago
I have used sid as my main desktop for over a decade now. To be honest I actually run a mixed system with a few packages (not just one-offs but big things like xmonad/iceweasel/awesome/git/pandoc/git-annex/gitit) from experimental. If it has been a long time (5-7 years) since you tried unstable you can think of experimental as what unstable used to be. When was the last time you tried sid? When I first made the switch from RH to debian there were occasional issues but these went away as I became more experienced with debian. It has been years since I encountered a bug that caused me to lose more than an hour of productivity. The most recent issue that I have had with unstable was over a year ago and it was simply a matter of pinning a version of libcairo. The only reason I remember this so well is that someone else on HN was having trouble and my comment[1] on how to fix it was my highest rated comment at the time. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3907796 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3907796