Re: Woody vs. Sarge vs. You've heard this before ;-)

From: Jacob Anawalt (jacob_at_cachevalley.com)
Date: 08/14/03

  • Next message: Li Zhou: "GDM not loading????? help"
    To: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
    Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 12:46:27 -0600
    
    

    "Keith G. Murphy" <keithmur@mindspring.com> wrote:
    > Aaron wrote:
    >
    > >
    > > I don't want the hassle of running a hybrid Woody/Sarge system, just
    > > because I'm too lazy to deal with the depedencies, but I don't mind a
    > > few bugs in exchange for a more recent version of KDE/gAIM/whatever.
    > >
    > One disadvantage of moving away from stable is that you don't have the
    > security updates available anymore. Of course, this probably doesn't
    > matter much if you're on a single family PC with no open ports to the
    > Internet.
    >

    When I asked about security, I was told that if bugfixes, including
    security updates, are implemented upstream, they would appear in
    unstable much sooner than they would in testing.

    My conclusion from that was that yes, I will not be getting security
    updates from the Debian security team in stable, but I would be getting
    the security updates in the form of normal updates to unstable much sooner
    than I am going to see them in testing. At any rate, I choose to keep
    unstable behind an iptables firewall and NAT gateway running stable.

    > But what I do on my home PC is run stable (with security updates) plus
    > selective updates from some of the 3rd-party Woody backport sources from
    > apt-get.org. Then, I just keep an eye on new security updates; if one
    > cropped up on a package I drew from a 3rd party source, I'd have to
    > figure out if the 3rd-party packager had incorporated the update, and
    > what I needed to do if he didn't.
    >
    > I can't stand behind any of the packages from apt-get.org, but I'd be
    > very surprised if, say, Adrian Bunk's packages were not of extremely
    > high quality.
    >
    > I do notice there's some KDE there, but I can't tell if they're Woody
    > backports.
    >
    > Happy hunting!
    >

    I haven't gotten into apt-get.org, though it is often suggested. You have
    expressed the same issue I have imagined would be the case if I used
    apt-get.org, just as I had using 3rd party RPMs for say mod_frontpage.
    Security updates aren't released by the 'official security team', and may
    not be as timely. On the other hand, the person making the 3rd party
    packages _if_ they are still active and not on vacation or sick or something
    would likely be re-compiling and back-porting the package for themselves.

    Where are they back-porting the fix from? If it's unstable, didn't the guys
    running unstable already get this fix? I guess if it's from experimental or
    the
    upstream maintainer or developers then a stable backport might outpace
    an unstable update.

    The stable backports sound like a good way to go, especially if
    you only want the latest update of a package or two, instead of everything.
    For my desktop system running unstable seems to be the thing to do,
    running testing wasn't.

    -- 
    To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-request@lists.debian.org 
    with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmaster@lists.debian.org
    

  • Next message: Li Zhou: "GDM not loading????? help"

    Relevant Pages

    • Re: Update Site Catalog?
      ... The security update sync tool only affects updates detected by MBSA. ... your normal monthly security updates package with type "MBSA" or type ... > - Create a new package for the February Updates. ...
      (microsoft.public.sms.swdist)
    • Re: x86_64 or i386?
      ... apply what you expect to be updates and what ... it is a package error. ... years doing nothing but system bugfix and security updates ... I mean that there are times you want new features and changes ...
      (Fedora)
    • Re: Feature Proposal: Rolling Updates (was Re: WHY I WANT TO STOP USING FEDORA!!!)
      ... kinks are worked out, the new package requires libfoo.9, then libfoo.9 ... everything that required libfoo.7 also has to be moved into updates. ... When you update Fedora ... I am well aware of libraries. ...
      (Fedora)
    • Re: Binary RHEL Updates available free !
      ... > logo/trademark on a GPL package deny redistibution of that package because ... And note these are only the updates to keep a system ... Open Source is what it's all about. ...
      (linux.redhat)
    • Re: Easy way to update Fedora
      ... >>What is the easiest way to update Fedora. ... >>about yum but it has never worked for me, ... > packages or type a package name ... > UPDATES TO SYSTEM AND PROGRAMS: ...
      (Fedora)