faq on choosing a debian distribution - draft 1

From: Kamaraju Kusumanchi (kamaraju_at_gmail.com)
Date: 10/24/04

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To: debian-user <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

    Hi all
       I read this list regularly. I find that people who want to try
    Debian for the first time are often confused about the fact the there
    are three debian distributions and do not know which one to choose. As
    usual, everyone wants to do the right thing the first time. I made
    this small FAQ to help them and would like to seek your expert
    opinions. This is just a rough draft and will post the updated version
    next week after receiving suggestions from all of you.

    My questions are
    1) Is it worth to make such a document/HOWTO? Do you think it will be
    useful/useless?
    2) Obviously the set of questions is not a complete list. I would like
    to receive suggestions about new questions. If you can attach both
    question and corresponding answers that would be great.
    3) Any other advice?

    ***************************************
         choosing a debian distribution
    ***************************************

    1. How many Debian distributions are there?

    Read http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-faq/ch-ftparchives.en.html#s-dists
    . As it says, Debian comes in 3 distributions - stable, testing, unstable.

    2. Which Debian distribution is better for me?

    The answer is a bit complicated. It really depends on what you intend to do. The
    best solution would be to ask a friend who runs debian. The following are
    intended to supplement the information.

    If you are worried about security and stability issues, install stable. period.
    This is the most preferred way.

    If you are a little bit daring, adventurous and do not mind having a system that
    breaks once in a while then use unstable. Unstable is for experts who know what
    they do.

    If you are unsure, stick with the stable distribution.
    If you are new to Debian, install stable.

    3. You asked me to install stable, but in stable so and so hardware is not
    detected/working. What should I do?

    Try to google around and see if someone else is able to get it working in
    stable. Most of the hardware would work fine with stable. But if you have one of
    those state-of-the-art cutting edge hardware, it might not work with stable. If
    this is the case, you might want to install/upgrade to unstable.

    4. Will there be different different versions of packages in different
    distributions?

    Yes. Unstable has the most recent (latest) versions. But the packages in
    unstable are not well tested and might have bugs.

    On the other hand, stable contains old versions of the package. But this
    package is well tested and (99.999999%) will not have any bugs.

    For example, when I started writing this document the different versions of apt
    package are as follows

    stable --- 0.5.4.0.1
    testing --- 0.5.27
    unstable --- 0.6.25

    5. If I were to decide to change to another deistribution, Can I do that?

    It is a one way process. You can go from stable --> testing --> unstable.
    But the reverse direction is not "possible". So better be sure if you are
    plannning to install/upgrade to unstable.

    6. Did anyone really ask these questions?

    Oh yeah. Too many to list here. Read the debian-user mailing list archive and
    you know what I am talking about.

    7. I am still confused. What did you say I should install?

    The safest bet would be stable distribution 

    -- 
Kamaraju S Kusumanchi
Cornell University
http://people.cornell.edu/pages/kk288/
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