On 02/16/2013 03:20 AM, Simon Wise wrote:
On 16/02/13 14:40, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 07:14:12 +0100, david <gnome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
No clue how they'll do. I prefer Debian Sid
Debian Sid might be ok, I just have no good feelings regarding to the
state
"unstable".
in Debian unstable means changing (4 times a day I think), stable means
frozen ... i.e. you have the choice of a version with very current
packages (obviously also somewhat less tested) or one which is very much
more tested but based on a freeze that was 6 months ago when it is first
released, up to 30 months ago by the time it is replaced by next stable
version. The freeze really means frozen, but there is the backports
system with newer packages if you want.
One way to use sid is install it on a second partition, work with it for
a bit updating only those few bits that need the fresh fixes ... then
once you get the system working as you want ... leave it alone! Forget
about the system and do your audio. Some time later you may be tempted
by some new features in versions that are now months ahead of the rest
of your system, here you need to be careful. Apt-get will show you what
it is about to do, say no if it is too drastic! Best copy your system to
that other partition so you have a known fully working backup ... then
upgrade etc.
Something that the (now quite inactive) aptosid did so they could offer
a rolling sid using dist-upgrade was they set up a special runlevel in
init without X for doing the upgrades in text mode. It isn't that hard,
just tweak the /etc/rc.d directories and do init 3 (or whatever) before
upgrading. And yes, init and run levels are the default in the soon to
be released new stable so it will be default there for another two
years. They tend to be very conservative with core system stuff. I used
aptosid for many years without a hitch, but they kept a close eye on
problems and held back updates with issues so you could dist-upgrade
from time to time quite safely.
Eventually you will want to upgrade properly ... install a fresh,
current sid in your other partition or whatever and get it set up as you
like it before swapping to that as your main system.
The other very workable Debian option is to use the current stable with
a few newer packages from backports. You get much less of the latest,
but you do not live on the edge either. I haven't done that but there
are at least a few audio packages that get their newish versions ported
on backports.
The way to handle updates on Sid: start with Aptosid. Update only those
apps that you find you need to update. I use Rosegarden, and it had some
bug fixes that addressed issues I had with it, and Debian Stable was
never going to get the fixes. (Neither did backports, as far as I know,
but when I was using Stable, I found backports pretty useless.)
FWIW, I'm running Sid on my two main systems (desktop and laptop). I
also have deb-multimedia in the repository collection, along with a
couple of PPAs such as one for the real cdrecord.
--
David
gnome@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
authenticity, honesty, community
http://clanjones.org/david/
http://dancing-treefrog.deviantart.com/
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