Debian Etch to be Released in December

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Debian Etch to be Released in December

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday May 4, 2006 @01:42AM from the regular-releases-makes-for-happy-users dept.

lord_rob the only on writes "According to a ZDNet article, the next release of Debian should be available in December 2006. From the article : 'The date represents a dramatic improvement in the regularity of Debian's development cycle. Etch will be shipped only 18 months after the previous release, version 3.1.'

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I knew this was coming... by sydneyfong · 2006-05-04 01:49 · Score: 2, Funny

when I read this post....

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Don't quote me on this.
I know the name of it by Anonymous Coward · 2006-05-04 01:51 · Score: 3, Funny

It's after 3.1 so it has to be Debian 95 !
1. Re:I know the name of it by rduke15 · 2006-05-04 02:04 · Score: 2, Funny
  
  It's after 3.1 so it has to be Debian 95 !
  
  No, it will be Debian 3.11 for Workgroups.
  
  Debian 95 will come later...
Damnit! by Professor_UNIX · 2006-05-04 01:56 · Score: 3, Funny

What the hell is with releasing a new version so quickly? I just installed Sarge on my new web host and was hoping to get at least 2-3 years out of it as stable before I had to upgrade. Shit.
/no, I'm not kidding.
1. Re:Damnit! by swillden · 2006-05-04 02:45 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Who says you have to upgrade instantly? I know a bunch of people running FC1, or even RH9 or 7.3. If it works, you don't have to touch it
  It's not a good idea to run systems, especially if they're Internet-facing, on old releases that don't get security updates.
  That said, Sarge will continue getting security updates until the successor to Etch is released, so there's no problem with continuing to run it for a couple of years yet, even if Debian manages to keep up the 18-month cycle.
  
  --
  Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
2. Re:Damnit! by �berhund · 2006-05-04 03:21 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  >> Who says you have to upgrade instantly? I know a bunch of people running FC1,
  >> or even RH9 or 7.3. If it works, you don't have to touch it
  
  > It's not a good idea to run systems, especially if they're Internet-facing,
  > on old releases that don't get security updates.
  
  The Fedora Legacy Project provides security updates for RedHat and Fedora releases that have been end-of-lifed by RedHat. Currently, they support RH 7.3 and 9, and Fedora 1-3.
  
  --
  -Uberhund
3. Re:Damnit! by beef3k · 2006-05-04 04:21 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Sounds like you chose the wrong distro... use CentOS instead.
an improvement? by croddy · 2006-05-04 01:57 · Score: 3, Insightful

Sure, it's an increase in the frequency, but is it really an improvement? Are people really clamoring for an update over sarge?
Debian's QA process takes a long time, but it's nice not to have to go through a dist-upgrade every few months on servers that need to be left alone and 'just work'.
1. Re:an improvement? by RangerRick98 · 2006-05-04 02:14 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Poor Debian. When they don't release for years upon years, people complain and poke fun at them for being so slow. When they pick up the pace, people complain they're releasing too often. (Yes, I understand it's not the same group of people in both cases; I just find it funny.)
  
  --
  "You're older than you've ever been, and now you're even older."
2. Re:an improvement? by zaguar · 2006-05-04 02:17 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  but it's nice not to have to go through a dist-upgrade every few months on servers that need to be left alone and 'just work'.
  I assume you're referring to Ubuntu. Ubuntu does NOT require you to dist-upgrade, it is your choice. You WILL be supported on Hoary and Dapper with security releases for years. It is entirely unneccessary to upgrade every couple of months for a server. Find something, and stick with it.
  
  --
  "Sure there's porn and piracy on the Web but there's probably a downside too."
3. Re:an improvement? by AmishMoshr · 2006-05-04 02:55 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Close, but not quite... Hoary and Breezy are only supported for 18 months after their initial release. Dapper, on the other hand, will have 3 years of desktop support/updates and 5 years of "server" updates. So Dapper is the only one that really has literal full years of support.
Wait a second by ndogg · 2006-05-04 02:00 · Score: 2, Funny

What? Debian Etch is going to be released already? Damn. Not too long ago, I was playing with Woody (hey, stop giggling), and more recently, with Sarge (I said, stop giggling, frickin' school girls).

Debian goes way to fast for me! Argh! I can't keep up!

--
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
Change every occurence of stable into sarge by Alphager · 2006-05-04 02:05 · Score: 2, Informative

in /etc/apt/sources.list and enjoy the bugfixes and security-updates for another 18 months.
Re:AMD64? by colonwq · 2006-05-04 02:12 · Score: 3, Informative

From the article:
One of the major new features of Etch will be official support for the 64-bit x86 architecture which is becoming increasingly used in servers.

:wq

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-- Phase 1: Collect under pants Phase 2: ? Phase 3: Profit
Let me be the first to say... by zaguar · 2006-05-04 02:14 · Score: 2, Interesting

Some might like it, but 18 months is a long, long time. With distro's like Ubuntu releasing every 6 months (yes, I know about Dapper's delay) with a relatively STABLE product with cutting edge features (Gnome 2.14), is it time for Debian to rethink their policy.
I'm not suggesting Debian shouldn't have long releases schedules (it ensures a rock-solid product), but only that they consider what it is doing to the userbase.

--
"Sure there's porn and piracy on the Web but there's probably a downside too."
1. Re:Let me be the first to say... by Hellboy0101 · 2006-05-04 02:27 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  What people have to understand is that Ubuntu, for all it's goodness, is pretty much a polished over version of Debian Testing. If you want a shiny new OS, create a cron job to run apt-get dist-upgrade every 7 days (after you've added the testing/security repositories). You could have a new Debian every week if you wanted to. :)
  
  --
  Because teenage pranks are fun when you're about to die!
2. Re:Let me be the first to say... by e5z8652 · 2006-05-04 03:34 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  Hmm. Instead of rethinking policy for the whole Debian project, since as you point out they do have a large number of perople who actually like a slower release cycle, Debian could come up with a sub-distribution.
  
  This sub-distribution could be essentially Debian but with an emphasis on the latest and greatest desktop environment, newest kernel, etc. But all of the tools would remain the same (apt-get, etc.) and packages should be interchangeable. (Barring kernel or library dependencies of course - attempting to install the latest udev package on a 2.6.8 Sarge box might have understandable problems.)
  
  You could call this sub-distribution something friendly and warm, like a word that means something like "humanity to others" in a non-English language, which will appeal to a large number of English speakers as having a name that is easily remembered and catchy but won't be confused with your girlfriend or headgear.
  
  Then, to avoid the overhead of trying to run a whole other sub-distribution in addition to oldstable, stable, testing, unstable and experimental - you could spin off the sub-distribution and give it a life of it's own, where it can draw on the huge Debian base, but have the independence it needs to track the latest and greatest.
  
  Excellent!
  
  --
  
  null sig
Re:This is a bad idea by Phleg · 2006-05-04 02:36 · Score: 3, Informative

Assuming a standard 18-month release cycle, they would support a distribution for exactly the three years offered by RedHat. Each previous version of "stable" is supported for eighteen months, so support for Woody should be phased out as soon as Etch is released. If they keep with the standard release cycle, eighteen months after that when Etch+1 is released, Sarge support will be phased out.

--
No comment.
Finally a faster Debian release. by Anonymous Coward · 2006-05-04 02:59 · Score: 2, Insightful

I see some people complaining (probably out of jest) that this release is too fast.

What a load of bollocks.

I've been working as a server administrator for 8 years now. Debian was quite okay from '98 until about '00. After having newly upgraded from slink to potato I found that the mysql installation was so old that developers wouldn't touch it at all. Upgrading it in a nice way was not exactly an easy thing to do - as just COMPILING a newer version was hell - due to it depending on things that was too new for this 'stable' distro.

This is only one thing. Other things are year-old releases of things such as snort. What good is it? The simple answer is that it's no good at all. Some sorts of software NEEDS to be bleeding edge. Think of it as running a years-old version of an antivirus engine. Sure, you can try to hack the signature files to be able to detect new viruses, but some kinds will just "slip past due to the detection engine". Same with snort and various other goodies.

Debian is quite simply releasing too slowly for most needs. Sure, I'm pretty sure it's good enough if you can hand compile all the libraries you need for newer software which is in business demand .. but .. ehh .. if you're up to that task for most tasks - you can just as well roll your own company distro and keep that stable. Not that much more work.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering, I'm working at a company where a huge lot of our installed base is 5-6 year old distros, with our add-ons. We compile libraries for breakfast. But for a distribution to be based on that assumption? Bah I say. It's bollocks! And people who claim that it's a good thing? Get real.

Congratulations to Debian if they manage to get the release out this december.
Re:Run for cover! by Alioth · 2006-05-04 03:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

To put it in perspective, Debian got Woody and Sarge out in the time that Microsoft has taken to go from XP to Vista. They might even get Etch out before MS gets Vista out. So relatively speaking it's not that bad (especially considering how many packages Debian supports).

--
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
Debian vs. Microsoft by Just+Some+Guy · 2006-05-04 03:11 · Score: 2, Insightful

Let me get this straight: there will have been three Debian releases between major desktop Windows releases? That right there is enough to have the release management dragged out and shot. I mean, you know there's going to be a new version of OpenBSD every six months, so that's no big deal. But when Debian is out-releasing you, it's clear that your house is Not In Order.
Congratulations, folks, seriously. I'll be looking forward to that big apt-get!

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Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Etch? Where have I been? by LightningTH · 2006-05-04 05:05 · Score: 3, Interesting

/# cat /etc/debian_version
2.2 /# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.2.19 (root@matrix) (gcc version 2.95.2 20000220 (Debian GNU/Linux)) #11 Wed May 28 23:36:14 EDT 2003

I'm still on Potato. It's been stable and online for the last 6 years (as I recall upgrading to potato from slink). Give me a good reason to upgrade being this is my web/mail/dns/ftp box.

ps: cpu info shows AMD K5 75mhz