Debian Stable or Debian Testing Which Linu x is right for you

I have written several times recently about Debian GNU/Linux an several istributions erive from it! "s a few #eo#le have #ointe ou t$ though$ when I wrote about Debian itself I only covere the %Stabl e% istribution &currently 'Whee(y')$ whereas the other istributions ar e almost always erive from the Debian %Testing% istribution &curren tly '*essie')!

This leaves o#en some vali +uestions about how Debian *essie itself s tac,s u# against those other istributions - an even the more basic +uestion of how oes *essie com#are with Whee(y. Since the first al #ha release of *essie was /ust ma e a wee, or so ago$ this seems li, e a goo time to ta,e a loo, at it in etail! 0irst off$ what is the Testing release$ an how oes it iffer fro m the Stable release. The Debian Wi,i gives a goo overview of the Debian Testing 1elease$ an the Debian Develo#er's 2orner also has so me useful information about how the Testing istribution wor,s$ an an 0"3 that a resses a variety of issues an consi erations that you mi ght have if you want to use this istribution!

4ut basically$ incoming #ac,ages first enter the Debian %Unstable% istr ibution$ an they stay there for at least a few ays$ at least until th ey have been built an verifie for all of the architectures currently s

u##orte $ an until they on't intro uce any obvious new bugs or insta bility into the istribution! 5nce they have reache the re+uire stabilit y$ they are migrate into the Testing istribution!

This means that Testing shoul be #rotecte from the worst of the in stability that can result from new #ac,ages$ but it is still not im#ervio us to it! So that is the first criteria if you are consi ering running Debian Testing$ you must be willing to acce#t that there can be unex# ecte bugs$ ranging from minor irritants to ma/or #roblems! The #ositiv e si e of this is that when such things o ha##en$ there will be lots of #eo#le all over the worl wor,ing on it$ so such situations generally o n't last very long!

This is also the first area for com#arison between Debian Testing an istributions erive from it$ such as Linux 6int Debian 7 ition$ 6a,ulu an many others! With each a itional layer between yourself an the original Testing istributions$ you are ecreasing the chance of such #r oblems getting through to your system$ because you are a ing more s mart an e icate #eo#le to the #i#eline$ an they are almost certain to see such #roblems before they filter through to you! "s a si e note I woul also mention that Linux 6int Debian 7 ition was originally su##ose to be a true %rolling release%$ trac,ing the Deb ian Testing istribution an u# ates #retty closely! It i n't ta,e long f or the 6int evelo#ers to reali(e that this involve a very large amoun t of wor,$ an there was a very large ris, of something su enly gett ing bro,en$ if only for a short time! They then change to an %U# ate 8ac,% istribution mo el$ so that they have more time to assemble an test u# ates before sen ing them on to their users!

"nother characteristic of this Unstable/Testing/Stable hierarchy is tha t changes$ u# ates an new #ac,ages o not automatically #rogress fr om Testing into the current Stable release! Things li,e security-relate

#atches an u# ates obviously are integrate into the Stable istrib ution$ while at the other extreme new Linux ,ernel releases generally o not go through so Whee(y to ay is still running ,ernel 9!:$ while * essie is running 9!;9!

5ne result of this ecision to stay with the original ,ernel ma/or versi on for the entire life of the release$ Debian Stable will often not have the latest evice rivers &or other enhancements) which are #art of n ewer ,ernel evelo#ments! I have mentione this several times since W hee(y was release $ because the 9!: ,ernel oesn't su##ort the 1alin, 9:<= wi-fi a a#ter in my >8 m; netboo,! This can also show u# in th ings li,e the 4T10S filesystem$ an other such areas of ongoing evelo #ment!

4etween these two extremes$ other #ac,age u# ates are evaluate b ase on the significance of the u# ate an the ris, to stability in ete rmining whether they go through to the current Stable istributions$ or /ust remain in the current Testing until the entire istribution is releas e as a new Stable version!

This is an area where istributions erive from Debian Testing can ma ,e their own ecisions$ an they may choose to inclu e u# ates that D ebian oes not migrate to Stable$ or even to inclu e them from Unstab le before Debian moves them to Testing!

This as#ect becomes #articularly im#ortant because when Debian gets to the final stages of a release cycle they %free(e% the Testing istri bution so that they can test an ensure that it is a stable as #ossible before releasing it! This %free(e% can be relatively long$ e#en ing on h ow the testing goes$ an how many other non-technical &#olitical) cons i erations might get in the way!

The result of this can be that the Testing istribution gets somewhat l eft behin by the ongoing evelo#ment of the Linux ,ernel an all of th e other #ac,ages! 5f course the istributions that are erive from D ebian are not boun by such a %free(e%$ so if you were using one of t hose you woul #robably be more u# to ate uring this #hase!

5ne more thing to say? the Unstable an Testing branches are not only use to trac, the ongoing evelo#ment an istribution of the Linux ,e rnel an all the other #ac,ages! They are also use by the Debian ev elo#ers to try out com#letely new i eas an new #ac,ages! In fact the situation right now is a goo exam#le of that@ Debian has use the Gn ome es,to# by efault for a long time now$ but the recent "l#ha rele ase of *essie uses Afce an the evelo#ers have s#ecifically state in the release notes that they haven't eci e yet if Debian B will u se Afce or Gnome! So be #re#are for future changes in this area! 5r not! 6aybe!

5,ay$ so that's an overview of some of the a ministrative$ technical a n #olitical issues involve in eci ing to run Debian Testing rather tha n Debian Stable! >ow o they com#are when they are actually installe an in use.

Well$ unfortunately at the moment it is not +uite so easy to ma,e a i rect com#arison$ because the ifference in es,to#s &Afce in Testing vs! Gnome in Stable) causes a lot of the associate #ac,ages to be c om#letely ifferent! 4ut here is a +uic, overview of /ust a few things?

Stable &Whee(y) Testing &*essie/Si ) Linux Cernel 9!:!DE9!;9!D

Des,to#

Gnome 9!E!:Afce E!;= :E!E!=:E!E!= E!;!D!9

Iceweasel &4rowser) Libre5ffice 9!D!E!: GI68 :!B!: :!B!F

I mentione the ramatic ifference in ,ernel versions above? the same is true of the es,to#! Gnome 9!E!: is +uite ol $ the current version is 9!;= an it loo,s li,e 9!;: will be out soon@ Afce E!;= is the latest ava ilable! Iceweasel is ,e#t #retty well u# to ate even in Stable$ an mos t of the other #ac,ages lag to varying egrees$ e#en ing on si(e$ co m#lexity an #otential im#act of u# ates!

>aving gotten this far$ what if you eci e that Debian Testing is the r ight istribution for you! >ow o you get it. If you alrea y have Debi an Stable installe you /ust change your re#ository list$ re#lacing %stab le% &or %whee(y%) with %testing% &or %/essie%)! There is some subtlety i n those ual names$ by the way! If you use the co e name &currently %/essie%)$ then you will trac, that s#ecific release through its evelo# ment an into Stable! That means to ay you will be running Debian Tes ting$ but at some #oint in the future you will be running Debian Stable$ without ever changing your re#ository references! 4ut if you use the generic name &%testing%)$ you will stay with the testing release #erman ently!

7ither way$ once you have change your re#ository list$ refresh your #ac,age list$ an u# ate! 5f course$ e#en ing on how long it has been since Stable was release $ there might be a lot of u# ates to be one on that first #ass!

"nother alternative is to ownloa the latest Testing ebian-installer! This is what I i $ with the recent "l#ha release$ an it has the a van tage of re+uiring a lot less u# ates after installation com#are to u#

ating from Stable! >owever$ this is not a guarantee #ath$ because th at image is actually inten e for testing the installer this means tha t at any given time it coul brea,$ fail$ or #erha#s even isa##ear com #letely for a short time$ for reasons that are not irectly relate to the testing istribution itself! 5,ay$ that's enough about Debian Stable an Testing! The other th ing I want to o is com#are Debian Testing to some of the #o#ular is tributions which are erive from it! "gain$ what are the tra e-offs$ what o you gain by running a erivative$ an why woul you want to o that &or not).

5ne of the best ,nown of those erivatives is Linux 6int Debian 7 itio n$ an as it ha##ens it is also one of the best illustrations of the #ros an cons of using such a istribution!

4IG 8ro? Im#rove stability! The very ex#erience evelo#ers at Linux 6int are testing$ integrating an #ac,aging u# ates before they are i stribute $ in this case via L6D7 U# ate 8ac,s! This greatly re uces t he chances of something being bro,en by an u# ate!4IG 2on? Delaye i stribution! That testing$ integrating an #ac,aging ta,es time! so u# at es ta,e longer to get to you! >ow much longer e#en s on the istribu tion$ of course$ an that means not only how long it ta,es them to o the wor,$ but also what their u# ate #olicy is!

6int Debian bun les most u# ates in to U# ate 8ac,s$ which are relea se every three to six months$ although certain things li,e critical sec urity fixes are istribute in ivi ually! 0or com#arison$ Soly AC is now on a fixe 9-month U# ate 8ac, sche ule &it use to be every month)$ an 6a,ulu is on a more or less continuous u# ate system &if you are very brave an /or very im#atient$ you can get L6D7 u# ates sooner by configuring it to use the 'Incoming' re#ositiories rather than the 'la test'$ with an increase ris, of instability!)

6a,ulu 6a,uluLinux Afce/Whis,er 8ro? Different es,to#s! There are erivative istributions with CD7$ 2innamon$ 6"T7$ Afce$ LAD7 an others! 5f course you coul install any of these es,to#s yourself on Debian Testing$ but there are two i m#ortant ifferences! 0irst$ you on't have to o the wor,$ they are alrea y installe an integrate for you! Secon $ oing this correctly a n com#letely means not only the es,to# itself$ but a lot of other util ities$ a##lications$ system #rograms$ an even themes!

8ro? Inclu ing #ac,ages that are not in the Debian GNU/Linux base ist ribution! The obvious exam#le of this is #ro#rietary an binary &non-0 5SS) #ac,ages! The one that most often gets mentione is the " obe 0lash #layer/browser #lug-in! " cou#le of other obvious ones are the #ro#rietary rivers for "6D/"TI 1a eon an nGi ia gra#hic controllers! Some less obvious exam#les are binary firmware blobs re+uire for thi ngs li,e Intel an 4roa com wireless networ,ing a a#ters! 5f course y ou can get a lot of these things in Debian by /ust inclu ing the %non-f ree% re#ositories$ but even that is not enough for some of it! The eri vative istributions can ta,e care of integrating the #ac,ages an a i ng the necessary re#ositories so that they are ,e#t u#-to- ate!

2on? There is always the #ossibility that evelo#ment will stall$ or even sto# altogether! 5ne current exam#le of this is Sim#ly678IS$ which ha sn't ha a new release since 6ay :=;; but I haven't given u# ho#e yet! There are still occasional rumblings about evelo#ment an u#comin g releases$ but not much ever seems to come of it!

There are two obvious alternatives here@ one is that someone else ta, es over the istribution$ or for,s it an continues with a %new% eriva

tive! This is more or less what ha##ene $ for exam#le$ with 6an riva being for,e to create 6ageia although 6an riva sort of continues to try to stagger along! The other alternative woul be that you /ust switch to another Debian erivative istribution!

So there you have it! There is a sim#le summary for all of this?

Debian Stable if your first #riority is a roc,-soli system$ an you o n't necessarily nee to su##ort the very latest har ware! This is ofte n the case if you are setting u# a server of some sort$ but it may als o be true if you are going to use a bit ol er !system as a es,to# wo r,station$ Debian Testing if you want or nee to have the latest har ware su##o rt$ ,ernel evelo#ments an a vance filesystems Derivative istributions if you want a lot of a itional #ac,ages inclu e in the base istribution$ thus saving you the time an effort of insta lling an configuring them!