On Thu, May 24, 2001 at 01:27:03PM -0700, Heather wrote: > > On Thu, 24 May 2001, Daniel E Baumann wrote: > > > > [cut wine package listings] > > > > > However, I do not recommend using non-free programs :). > > > > Huh? Wine is in main. Not non-free. > > > > BTW, you'll also need the libwine package to install wine. > > I believe that he means, wine would usually be most useful to run some > -very- non-free programs. > > Nonetheless, I have a *huge* mswin software collection, much of it shareware > and freeware, and a few non MS licensed apps that could be useful, but I'm > completely chicken about Unstable for the moment.
Problems with unstable are mostly in dependencies and pre/postinst scripts, and other minor packaging errors. Of course, if software you use a lot has a version in unstable that is actually an alpha or beta version, but a stable version is in woody, then you might not want to run all unstable. What I do is run woody, but with the unstable repositories in my sources.list, and APT::Default-Release "testing"; in my apt.conf. (see apt_preferences(5), etc.) This way, apt-get install package gets the package from woody, unless it only exists in unstable. apt-get install package/unstable gets the unstable version. apt-get -t unstable lets apt upgrade the dependencies to their unstable version if necessary. I've found that running an unstable libc is not actually as bad as it sounds. It's a really important package, so Ben makes sure he doesn't break it :) Of course, I wouldn't be running unstable packages if I didn't think I could hack my way out of any problems, so it's not for novices, but having a few packages from unstable is not a big deal, even if they are important ones. If all my packages were the unstable versions, I would probably see a lot more bugs caused by packaging errors than I do currently. Running the unstable versions of packages you are actively interested in is a good way to contribute to debian, and takes a lot less effort than hoping that lots of people will test everything by running unstable across the board. (Notice that I managed to argue that my position is the Right Thing to do. Err, I didn't quite mean to do that, but whatever. :) -- #define X(x,y) x##y Peter Cordes ; e-mail: X([EMAIL PROTECTED] , ns.ca) "The gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish the hours! Confound him, too, who in this place set up a sundial, to cut and hack my day so wretchedly into small pieces!" -- Plautus, 200 BCE
