Re: [Hampshire] Ubuntu + Debian

On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:59:39 +0000
Tony Whitmore <tony@???> wrote:

> The package versions in Debian Etch and Ubuntu 7.04 will be pretty
> similar as they are both released about the same time, but
> following releases of Ubuntu will have newer packages than Debian,
> until the next Debian stable release.

There is of course a very different philosophy behind Debian. There
has never been any attempt so far as I know for the stable version
to be on the cutting edge of development. And this approach does
appeal to some users as they know the OS isn't going to break
unexpectedly.

In recent years there have been unofficial backports of newer
packages into stable for people who have particular needs so if you
know what you are doing even stable needn't be too dodo like.

If you want 'near cutting edge' then use testing. It might get a
bit hairy for a while after etch is released as new packages are
migrated from unstable but since unstable is mostly safe most of
the time, even that migration process shouldn't cause too many
problems. I have been using unstable for years without too many
hiccups.

Ubunutu has adopted a different policy with regular version upgrades
at defined intervals and sticking to this has caused a few problems I
believe for people moving from one version to another.

Debian releases "when ready" after an extensive testing process.

Packages go first into experimental or unstable and after a period
of bug fixing will move into testing where it will stay until the
next stable version is due for release. Bug fixing will continue on
packages in testing and at some point in the release cycle they will
also get security upgrades.

The old 'stable' version is then archived but supported for a couple
of years (usually) and testing becomes the 'new' stable and
testing is re-populated with packages from unstable.

Stable doesn't get package upgrades other than security upgrades until
there are sufficient reasons for doing a 'point' upgrade, so woody
aka ver. 3.0 got R1 and R2 upgrades (if memory serves me correctly)

I won't go into the way ubuntu and debian 'co-operate' as it is or
has been a contentious issue. It does seem to me thought that
ubuntu is no longer a 'derived from debian' distro but a fork of
Debian with largely incompatible repositories.

--
John Lewis
Debian Linux with Geneweb genealogy application