[TriLUG] Debian Sid/Unstable

[Phil Smith]

I used Debian "Unstable" for about 5 years and then switched to Gentoo (a non-binary distro., built from source code), which allows me to have the latest of my important apps (by unmasking them) without the latest of everything else.  The breaking point for me with Sid was installing a package like mplayer-nox (does not require X-Windows, uses SDL/Directfb), then try to run it before starting X and have it complain about missing X libraries, etc..  I filed a bug report and was told my unusual desire to have a non-X mplayer was my problem.  I was actually building so many packages from source (bypassing Debian package maintainers) under Sid that the distro's value was questionable.

"Unstable" doesn't mean what most people assume.  Pick any package's version in Sid and check vs. the upstream project page, you'll often find Sid ("Still In Development") doesn't even have the latest version the project maintainer considers "stable".  What "unstable" refers to the most is that some developers are developing against fairly old "stable" libraries from 2-3 years ago.  The shared libraries evolve over time, with new/renamed entry points, and in some cases there just is no way to build a system that has both package X and package Y until the developers update their code to work with current releases of shared libraries.  If a package is obscure, the maintainer may "think it builds and works" may not thoroughly test it, especially with other obscure packages.  So "unstable" doesn't mean any particular package is buggy, just that "too many (even highly skilled) cooks in the same (build system) kitchen can make a big mess".  In Gentoo,
 sometimes to have a working system with unmasked packages after an update, one has to remove and live without certain packages until the build process stabilizes and the package, with its dependencies will build and install again.  Gentoo has an "overlay" system for (in my experience) stuff the maintainer couldn't get to build.  "OpenOffice" rarely builds from source, quite often making the gcc compiler do a segmentation fault.  The workaround is to try compiling with a newer or older version of gcc (you can have many versions installed at once), or install a binary package, and avoid the 4 hour build ending in a segfault.  Gcc is a (fortunately rare) case where both the old and new versions are "unstable".

Summary: "Unstable" refers to the build process, but can spill over into a poorly tested released package.

I still remember trying to pitch Debian Unstable to a large customer, unsuccessfully.  The customer preferred to purchase vendor support and be told to upgrade to the latest version (of a single package) after a CSR finds their exact defect in a database and can tell them running the latest version fixes the problem.  In the old days this was termed "selective fix", a concept that largely vanished (along with "system test") with "Critical Update Tuesdays".  One has to think about whether one really wants to run a distro. you could not sell to any  customer.  After running Gentoo, it seems strange that the majority of people running "Open Source Software" do so from binary distros., but alas, even kernel.org tells you to go get a binary distro..

Phil