[lug] Help installing debian at the install fest?

[David L. Anselmi]

David Morris wrote:
[...]
> For most users, use the 'stable' release.  If you know what
> you are doing with Linux and need more current versions of
> applications use 'testing', but prepare for some
> applications to be broken from time to time.  Avoid
> 'unstable' unless you want lots of pain and frustration.

For most users running mission critical apps, maybe.  For the things 
people tend to use WinXP for, I'd say testing is better.

"Lots of pain and frustration" for me has been 2 problems in the past 8 
months.  One was my smartcard reader stopped working.  But it was 
unsupported and shouldn't have worked in the first place--nothing to do 
with unstable.  The other was that the kernel updated ahead of my 
wireless drivers.  My fault for a) using a kernel that was too new, and 
b) using wireless hardware that doesn't have open drivers.  But I know 
what to watch for and it won't happen again.  And fixing it was a matter 
of booting the previous kernel and removing the new one.

So I think "lots" is an overstatement.

> If old packages are likely to be a
> problem for you than you do *not* want to be using Debian.
> Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) is a good alternative.

I disagree.  Packages that get old for 6 months and then need a large 
update are more painful for me than those that update every week and 
don't guarantee problem free updates.  I can understand people who don't 
like frequent updates that cause unexpected problems but I'm much 
happier never having to ask "how well will the upgrade from etch to 
lenny work?"  People who don't like unexpected problems should probably 
get someone else to manage their computers for them ;-)

Dave