On Wed, 2007-08-01 at 13:41 -0700, Antonio Olivares wrote: > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Claude Jones <cjones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > To: For users of Fedora <fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx> > Sent: Wednesday, August 1, 2007 1:38:45 PM > Subject: Re: Back Again > > On Wednesday August 1 2007 12:12:38 pm Antonio Olivares wrote: > > I am no expert, but from what I have learned through the years > > using Debian based distros/live cd's, Knoppix, Kanotix, DSL, > > etc. > > > > Debian Woody is older > > Debian Etch is the stable branch of Debian > > Debian Sid is the testing/unstable branch of Debian. > > There's also Debian Lenny > > > > http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-ftparchives.en.html > > > > > > > > Other codenames that have been already used are: buzz for > > release 1.1, rex for release 1.2, bo for releases 1.3.x, > > hamm for release 2.0, slink for release 2.1, > > potato for release 2.2, woody for release 3.0, > > sarge for release 3.1, and etch for release 4.0 > > I guess I was confusing release 4 with Testing. I am definitely > not a Debian expert. Is there some truth to the stories I've > read repeatedly in recent times, that Debian was not lagging as > far back as it once did, in your experience? > > -- > Claude Jones > Brunswick, MD, USA > > -- > > Claude, > > You are correct. Debian stayed behind the times, but with the new release "Etch" it is catching up. It provided stability by keeping older packages and if you wanted newer packages you could enable the testing branch called sid. Kanotix was based on Debian Sid and now a newer distro named "Sidux" is based on Debian Sid. These are the Debian equivalent of Fedora's Rawhide. > > While I have never installed Debian to one of my computers, I have ran Knoppix, Kanotix, DSL, and others which are based on Debian. > > Regards, > > Antonio For the record, and to clear up any confusion: Debian always has at least three releases in active maintenance: “stable”, “testing” and “unstable”. The “unstable” distribution is where active development of Debian occurs. Generally, this distribution is run by developers and those who like to live on the edge. The “unstable” distribution is (and probably always will be) called sid. The “testing” distribution contains packages that haven't been accepted into a “stable” release yet, but they are in the queue for that. The main advantage of using this distribution is that it has more recent versions of software. The current “testing” distribution is lenny. The “stable” distribution contains the latest officially released distribution of Debian. This is the production release of Debian, the one which we primarily recommend using. The current “stable” distribution of Debian GNU/Linux is version 4.0r0, codenamed etch. It was released on April 8th, 2007. (Etch replaced the previous stable version 3.0 called Sarge, Sarge having replace the previous stable version 2.0 called Woody, and so on and so on.) Andy
