This is the sixth revision of Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (codename `potato’) which mainly adds security updates to the stable release, along with a few corrections of serious bugs. Those who frequently update from security.debian.org won’t have to update many packages. However, most updates from security.debian.org are included in this point release.
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 R6 Updated
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I don’t know if any debian developer hang around, but I think they should concentrate in releasing woody as stable as soon as possible. One of the major complain I hear from ppl about Debian is that their “stable” release is based on too old packages.
At least when they say it’s “stable” it is
I think they are .org which might means they just have few developers to works on their distribution. Actually it is a good progress sign for non-profit oriented organisation like them.
Maybe Mr. Dave Poirier can help to accelerate the releases by contributing some effort.
you are kidding right?
debian has more than 500 developers that have cvs access, not to mention the rest of the users who send package fixes to package maintainers.
add it all up and you get well over 1000 developers.
they release slow becasue they release when it is ready, not when the market says to. they can do this becasue they are a non-profit organization.
Really, Woody is about as stable as any other popular distribution’s current offering, and I think it’s certainly suitable for a production environment; Debian developers just have a thing with waiting for things to be *very* proven and bug-free before they call it stable. Hey, with all other the other distributions vying to get the most recent kernel, most recent XFree86 release, etc., out first, perhaps this is the key to Debian’s success. After all, is not their attention to detail at least slightly refreshing? Well, at least I think so. =) Such are the “luxuries” noncommercial distributions can afford, I suppose.
And don’t for get that they do it for a bunch of hardware platforms (http://www.debian.org/ports/)
I run Potato on my server and Libranet 2.0 on my workstation.
I think this is a great way to do it! As others have mentioned, woody is as stable as other distros. By releasing slowly Debian allows others (such as Libranet or Progeny) to sneak in releases to satisfy impatient users. Besides, at any point in time it would take all of about 5 minutes to find woody or sid ISO files.
Finally, with Debian one can easily install the stable base and then just upgrade to woody or sid.
Personally, I’d rather Debian developers concentrate on keeping packages updated rather than releasing new versions. Debian is about so much more than the stable ISOs they release every year or two. Ports, packages, a distributed mirror system, rock-solid stability and a unique developer and user community are what differentiates Debian from the rest. If you need XFree86 4.2 or kernel 2.4.18 and KDE 3.0 installed for you by default you probably don’t care about these things, and are better off with one of the others.
I’m not sure who you think I am, or if I do comments without participating in any community effort, but I’m really active in many projects, like most of the OSnews readers, probably even more than most.
I’m a debian follower, I always use their latest unstable release, update constantly, and yes, like a couple other folks, I was screwed over when the package maintainer for passwd decided to swap the fields of /etc/passwd without notifying anybody. I think that the mere fact I’m testing their latest distro and able to report bugs/problems is helping them out.
Personally I consider that 50 hours a week given to the free software community is considerable.
I don’t know if any debian developer hang around, but I think they should concentrate in releasing woody as stable as soon as possible.
And what do you think they are doing ?
2.2r6 is not something really new, it’s not a new version, this is just a revision. Nothing, compared to a new stable release.
And you shouldn’t forget that Potato is still the official stable version. Do you really think they should stop supporting this release, while the next one is still in development ?
Anthony Towns (release manager) just sent a Woody Status Update on debian-devel-announce : “Debian 3.0 will release on May 1st, 2002.”
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2002/debian-devel-ann…