[Nottingham] Debian devotion [was: OE Reply Fixer]

[Robert Davies]

On Wednesday 05 March 2003 20:53, you wrote:
> Robert Davies wrote:
> >On Wednesday 05 March 2003 17:23, you wrote:
> >>Martin Garton wrote:
> >>>On Wed, 5 Mar 2003, .waffle wrote:

> >My problem was, I needed a 'Fresh' release, packages that had been tested
> >reasonably and passed from unstable, that would add new software, and
> > major releases of things like Destkops, which don't impact underlying
> > server code.
>
> Like testing maybe?  Packages go to this when they have cleared
> unstable, though I use unstable without problems.  It is worth noting
> that unstable packages have already been proven stable in the
> experimental distribution, and I have had my machine broken exactly 0
> times tracking sid (unstable) pretty much daily.  IMHO the name does a
> lot to put people off but it is as stable as say mandrake.

testing may live on after sid was created, but woody was the only game in 
town when it was unstable and Potatoe was the current stable version.  At 
times woody *was* very broken.  Those who did use it told me at LUG meetings 
they had to keep an eye on the lists and only make 'fairweather' updates, 
I've also seen serious breakage at times reported in uk.os.linux.

So when Woody came out officially, I think I'd already been happily using 
another distro for 18 months, and have no reason to change.  Gentoo has 
aroused my interest again in trying another distro out, but I don't see any 
advantages of Debian over what I have currently installed, and quite a few 
disadvantages.

There's a well known psychological reason that can explain fandom and 
devotion.  Basically if you have to put a lot into something, then because 
you have time invested, you are fully bought in and committed.  To feel it 
wasn't worth the effort implies you wasted your time.  It's much easier to 
slag off what automatic tools do, as you've not 'bought into them' with your 
own efforts.

I liked Debian myself a lot when I had it, it was only really the slow 
release cycle and lack of near to state of art stable releases, that made me 
cut my losses and buy a commercial distro. 

Rob