Re: [Sheflug] debian potato / woody / ...

[Alex Hudson <nospam [at] alexhudson.com>]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2001 at 06:02:01PM +0100, Guennadi Liakhovetski wrote:
> I've seen a few times before 'debian potato' here and there, but never
> thought it was actually an official name of ... ? Of what?:-) What's all
> that - potato / woody / sid / slink/ ... and just DebianX.YrZ? Are they
> different distros or what?

Potato = Stable = 2.2rX, Slink = 2.0rX. Testing = Woody (will be) 2.4rX
(probably :), sid won't be released directly. Before Slink came Hamm, Bo,
Rex and Buzz. Potato is also Stable, as was Slink before it. Woody is
Testing, and Sid is Unstable (sort of). Woody will become stable, Potato
won't be Stable any more, but Sid will still be unstable. Previously, Slink
was Stable, Potato was Unstable (there was no Testing then), and sid was..
sid :) Make sense? And, although Potato is Stable, it is also stable, as is
Slink, Bo, Rex and Buz, and Woody/Testing is pretty stable currently :)

Basically, the names are snapshots of releases (except for Sid). Stable,
Unstable (and now testing) are pointers at releases (meta-releases?), and
sid is the place for new archs. If you want a stable Debian, don't call it
by name, call it Stable. If you want a
probably-stable-with-shiney-new-software, don't call it by name, call it
Testing. If you want to break your computer, use Unstable. If you want to
install Debian onto a machine with no plans for upgrading it ever (it works
and you just want to leave it..?) call it by name, i.e. Potato, or maybe
Slink if you're after the specific features of a certain release.

Debian currently are using 'Package Pools', where packages percolate from
Unstable to Testing and then Stable over a period of time, unless they got
chucked out for being rubbish before becoming stable (rubbish being a. has
bugs or b. is out of date). Unstable to Testing can be fairly quick (2 weeks
without bug reports and autobuilt, I think), Testing to Stable doesn't
happen often.

HTH,

Alex.
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