Time for a new Linux

[Tim Writer]

JoeHill <joehill-rieW9WUcm8FFJ04o6PK0Fg at public.gmane.org> writes:

> On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 10:27:44 +0000
> Ilya Palagin <IlyaPalagin-bJEeYj9oJeDQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org> uttered:
> 
> > The problem is that there is no distribution like this :-(
> > 
> > Debian is too behind the times
> 
> If you install Debian Stable, yes. If you install Debian Testing, it
> is/can be just as up-to-date as Mandrake.

It's not an either/or proposition.  IOW, you can run stable with only the
components of testing or unstable you specifically need.  So you can see how
this is done, here's my /etc/apt/preferences:

  X-comment: ==================== Track stable
  Package: *
  Pin: release a=stable
  Pin-Priority: 500

  X-comment: ==================== Make testing available (for manual selection)
  Package: *
  Pin: release a=testing
  Pin-Priority: 70

  X-comment: ==================== Make unstable available (for manual selection)
  Package: *
  Pin: release a=unstable
  Pin-Priority: 50

Only recently, OpenOffice.org 1.1 was added to testing.  I ran:

  apt-get -t testing install openoffice.org

The "-t testing" argument tells apt-get to temporarily raise the priority of
testing (above 500 [stable], I'm not sure of the exact value) so that my
previous version of OOo (and any missing dependencies) will be upgraded from
testing.  Sometimes, it can be a little tricky to get this right but overall,
it works well.  This is documented, albeit somewhat sparsly, at
the main Debian web site: http://www.debian.org.

Currently, I'm running Debian stable with:

    o   kernel 2.4.21,

    o   XFree86 4.3.0 with drm-trunk-module-src 2003.07.25 to support DRM on
        the recent Intel chipset on my Dell notebook,

    o   KDE 3.1.3,

    o   GNOME 2.4, and

    o   OpenOffice.org 1.1.

In other words, I have a very up to date desktop running on a stable
foundation.  This is the best of both worlds.

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
905.771.0017 ext. 225                           thornhill, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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