On Sat, 2004-04-10 at 14:00, Paul Patrick Carpio Prantilla wrote: > Hello All, > > I was wondering if there are people here who use debian woody on > computers directly connected to the internet...but at the same time > can't resist backporting or installing a "few packages" from the > unstable branch. The point is, I'd like a system (I wouldn't really call > this a server though btw) that's directly connected to the net to be as > stable as possible, but isn't stuck with old packages like > xfree86(ver<4.3), gnome 1.4, and so forth. I'd also like it to have some > goodies only available from unstable such as wireless-extensions,bluez > packages,tvtime,etc. This is because it's also used for desktop > activities especially when not online.
When I was still using Debian Potato (2.2) and backports.org didn't exist yet, I was quite active in backporting a lot of packages... Nowadays, using the apt repositories found at www.backports.org would save you a lot of time especially that you're using the current stable distribution of Debian GNU/Linux. > Now, while I do use sid on other computers, can anyone give me insights > on whether installing sid on the said sytem is a good idea? Or should I > just stick with backports? I'm trying to balance security, stablity and > functionality together. I've gotten numerous mixed reactions on this in > linux/debian chat channels, so I was thinking I'd post the topic here. Backports if you're trying to balance functionality and stability altogether. There's a reason why the Unstable distribution got its name :D Or why is it named after Sid of Toy Story :D > Finally, I'd also like to ask what kind of setups fellow debian users > here have. Does anyone of you actually still use woody? I personally > have gnome 2.2, kde 3.2 on my woody. The problem is, trying to make them > coexist with one another has broken a few other packages. For packages > that just aren't available for woody, I try to compile from source after > hunting down compatible versions if they exist (a very time-consuming > task I might add). Thus I'm now seriously contemplating on whether I > should just stop the madness and go full-blown sid, while simply > version-pinning the packages I think are ok enough for me. As a former backport packager, it is indeed a very time-consuming process. The situation is a bit better though, than two years ago - backporting then is a real pain as the tools that support multiple distributions are in testing and unstable, but not in the stable distribution back then. I still use Woody for mission-critical systems that require real stability, but I use backported packages every once in a while if it's really too old and missing the functionality I require. -- Paolo Alexis Falcone [EMAIL PROTECTED]
signature.asc
Description: This is a digitally signed message part
-- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
