However what Debian calls "stable" is a lot more stable and bug free than what other distributions may call stable. There are certain criteria for something being moved into testing and stable, certain types of bugs must not exist. First all the dependencies of a package must fit the criteria before a package itself can move.
You've also got packages working on a large number of architectures, and bugs have to be fixed for all of them. I use Debian "unstable" and find it pretty damn stable. I get the occassional dependency problem that can break things, but not too much. I know how to get things working again. I occassionally use stuff in "experimental" too (thats the really unstable stuff!) There are a number of unofficial apt repositories (apt-get.org is a good place to start looking) if you want something not in the offical repositories. Basically my point is, while many of us might call a particular piece of software "stable", with certain workarounds for bugs depending on what those bugs are means debian will not honour the package as being "stable" enough. Debian stable has very few security updates, because the attempt is made to eliminate the bugs from stable before they become security holes. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If its not broken in the first place it won't need fixing later. On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 14:08:49 +1200, Fisher, Robert (FXNZ CHC) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Correct again but have you checked the versions of the packages I mentioned? > Debian stable and testing do not have versions as recent as Gentoo "stable". > > Did I say that was my last word on the topic? I cannot help myself can I? > -- Regards, Sascha
