Re: We might need a better wording for our release page

Marc Haber <[email protected]> writes:

> On Fri, Dec 20, 2024 at 03:27:04PM +0000, Richard Lewis wrote:
>> Debian is avialable in three main versions available: stable, testing
>> and unstable.
>
> I'd like testing and unstable explicitly labeled as something alongside
> "unreleased, unsupported development versions" of Debian, mentioning
> that breakage (and very limited support to fix this, not even
> time-to-fix) must be accepted on such systems.

I know what you mean, but in practice debian is not actually offering
any support to anyone of any kind (or is it?). eg I'd say that bugs from
stable get less attention and take longer to "fix" than unstable.

However, the draft below incorporates this a bit more, and other
suggestions --- i gave up and mention all the synonyms at the start,
since they are everywhere anyway!

--------------------------------------

Debian Releases

Debian is avialable in three main versions (also called suites, releases
or distributions): stable, testing and unstable.

stable
------
This is the latest official Debian release. It is the version
recommended for beginners and for production services.

The name "stable" refers to the fact that it does not change often:
although we regularly release security fixes, we (almost) never change
the versions of software in it. We do make updates which can introduce
minor changes, but care is taken to not break anything. We generally
release a new vesion of stable every couple of years, but there is no
fixed timetable: we release a new stable version when it is ready.

The current stable release of Debian is version 12, codenamed
bookworm. It was initially released on 10 June 2023 and its latest
update, version 12.8, was released on 9 November 2024.

testing
-------

This is where the next version of Debian is tested. It is updated
constantly with packages arriving from unstable (see below) if no
critical bugs have been found in them. In practice many users treat this
as a "rolling release". It requires a lot more active administration
than stable because, for example, it does not receive direct security
support and broken software can only be fixed by packaages migrating
from unstable. It does, however, gives access to newer software than
stable.

The current "testing" version of Debian is codenamed "trixie". See the
Debian FAQ for more information.


unstable
--------
This is where active development of Debian occurs. Generally, unstable
is used by developers and advanced users who like to live on the
edge. As the name suggests, using unstable comes with a high risk of
broken software. If you use unstable you should also subscribe to the
debian-devel-announce mailing list to receive notifications of major
changes.

The "unstable" version of Debian is always codenamed "sid".