[TriLUG] Debian installation.

[Ken Wahl]

On Thu, May 22, 2003 at 01:15:57PM -0400, Ben Pitzer wrote:
> Ken,
> 
> Debian unstable is NOT for production use.  Honestly, I'd go with Sarge
> (testing) if I were you.  Folks who use unstable (Sid) are expected to do
> bug reports regularly, and really participate in the development process in
> that manner.  If you're willing to do that, and have your machine be
> bleeding edge, but always have the potential to break, lockup, etc., go for
> it.  But the community view is that there is a feedback and assistance
> responsibility that is expected of Debian Unstable users.  That being said,
> do what you like, but be warned that asking for help in any Debian forum
> will probably get you shorter shrift than usual as an unstable user.
> 

Yes, thanks for the headsup.  This may not float well with the Debian
enthusiasts but it was my understanding that Debian support forums
aren't very..um..well.(ahem)..supportive.  "What? You moron..You didn't
see that in page 1256 paragraph 27 subsection B?  RTFM already!  Besides
you could've written a simple 900 line shellscript to fix that.."

[Reaches for fire extinguisher..]

I jest but you get my point.  I would be wary of seeking support for
debian regardless of version unless I had googled for weeks and read
every man page, every info, and every readme I could find under the sun
and even then only with some trepidation.

The reason I was thinking of unstable was for for software availablity.
It was my understanding that the reason Debian stable is both very
stable and somewhat out of date was because it was so thoroughly
debugged.  Sarge, as I understand it, is a middleground between stable
and unstable.

This wouldn't have been a production system, just something to play with
to see if I like it.

I've heard Debian users say/write that unstable is still pretty stable
when compared to Redhat or Mandrake.  IOW it would be like running a
redhat (now defunct) x.0 distribution or maybe a little bit better.
-- 
Ken Wahl  ken at kenwahl.org  http://www.kenwahl.org