[nmglug] Questions About Dual Booting From A USB Drive

[Karl Hegbloom]

On Thu, 2005-04-07 at 22:11 -0600, Mark Galassi wrote:
> First, you can ignore "stable": it's application-poor and you should
> just use it to run your bank's network of ATM servers, or something
> like that.

"stable" refers more to the fact that the set of software and of
particular software versions is not changing in it, than to whether the
software has bugs or crashes in it.

Sometimes, especially for that bank ATM application, it's prudent to
grab packages with newer release versions that fix bugs.  The 'security'
repository is there just for that purpose.  So normally, for a deployed
server, you use 'stable' plus 'security', unless your application
demands a newer release of something.

They say that a good systems administrator should keep a development
machine around that you track `testing' or 'unstable' on, to keep up
with things, to prepare you for the next release.  That way, there are
fewer surprises when it comes time to upgrade the 'stable' boxes to the
latest release ... the new 'stable'.

There sure are a lot of new packages in 'unstable'!  I run "aptitude" at
least once a week.  There are always packages showing up in the "new
packages" category.  It's amazing.