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Debian 4.0 'Etch' Released

Posted by Zonk on from the etch-up-me-harties dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Earlier today we discussed the possibility that Debian Etch might be released soon. Well, according to debian.org, it has already happened. Etch has been released: 'The Debian Project is pleased to announce the official release of Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0, codenamed etch, after 21 months of constant development. Debian GNU/Linux is a free operating system which supports a total of eleven processor architectures and includes the KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments. It also features cryptographic software and compatibility with the FHS v2.3 and software developed for version 3.1 of the LSB.'"

15 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Yay! by Compact+Dick · · Score: 5, Funny

    I still remember my Woody days *sniff*

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    Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
    1. Re:Yay! by wuputah · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't worry, you can still get a woody with etch.

      *ducks*

      Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any loss of employment or productivity by clicking on any link in this post.

      --
      Brought to you by the numbers π, e, and 0x1B.
  2. And its not even the 1st... by arlo5724 · · Score: 5, Funny

    For a second there I thought maybe this was a late April fool's joke...

    1. Re:And its not even the 1st... by dirtyforker · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't be silly. Debian don't release their April Fool's jokes until October.

    2. Re:And its not even the 1st... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      They did actually intend to release it on April 1st, but it got delayed ...

    3. Re:And its not even the 1st... by koxkoxkox · · Score: 5, Informative
      Parent should be modded informative and not funny, as it is true : see http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2007 /03/msg00023.html

      Our secret plan was to announce the release on April 1st
      (that would have been fun, don't you think so :) ), but well - quality is
      more important.
  3. Multipath broken in debian etch! by ljaguar · · Score: 5, Informative

    etch ships with CONFIG_IP_ROUTE_MULTIPATH_CACHED (experimental) enabled in the kernel. This breaks the multipath route behavior in iproute. As the google search shows, it is wreaking havoc with anyone using multipath and dual-wan systems. Those who upgraded this morning to the new stable may be in for a ride. This is a known and documented issue but cannot be found in debian's bug tracking system. This issue is not unique to Debian but it should not have passed through the release engineering for the new stable release.

    1. Re:Multipath broken in debian etch! by cymen · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If you have no test system and the machine is providing service to users then do not upgrade to .0 releases. It's simple common sense. Maybe you had some overwhelming need to get this release that goes against the need to keep service reliable but you didn't mention it so I'll assume not. Let other people do the testing of that .0 release to find all the bugs and huge gotchas that are basically inevitable.

    2. Re:Multipath broken in debian etch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      When you start with Linux, you use the stock kernel, because it is easily available and works. When you gain experience, you start to compile your own. When you become a professional sysadmin, you use the stock kernels, because they are easily available and work.

  4. Next testing is "Lenny" by cyber_rigger · · Score: 5, Informative


    Debian's next testing version will be code named "Lenny" (from the movie Toy Story).

    http://times.debian.net/1034-Release-update:-Etch+ 1-=-Lenny,-Call-for-Testing,-Time-shift

  5. Missing package by Bob54321 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Doesn't even include firefox...

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    :(){ :|:& };:
  6. Is it 1997 or 2007 ? by Muki · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As I was recovering from a spring flu, I was bored enough and decided to upgrade from sarge to etch on my trusty old 600Mhz 256MB Compaq Deskpro. For the most part it went smooth and nice, but what amazes me is why the X stuff is still somewhat awkward. Hardware is certainly not bleeding edge. Maybe I'm just without a clue after a decade of professional multiplatform unix administration, but it sure beats me why X stuff still needs to be this clumsy - we're in year 2007, aren't we - ? Recently I installed two Dell 2900's at work and with Fedora FC6 it was surely as smooth as ever could be. Now someone jumps in and tells that 'Debian is not intended to be easy'. OK, but how is this intended to boost anyone's productivity to battle with stuff that was perhaps ok back in the early 90's ? Debian is such a stable (pun intended) and rock-solid platform to run servers on, I sure like it, but I'd like to see some minor refinements in getting wheels to roll. Used to run sarge at work, used to set up sarge systems for friends small businesses and home use, but have since then moved on to Fedora due to these unnecessary issues. Beat the living daylight out of me but I just don't feel like attacking the xorg.conf or XF....conf with vi anymore "cool" these days. Especially on very common hardware. Other than that, thanks for the debian folks for the release !

    1. Re:Is it 1997 or 2007 ? by Jussi+K.+Kojootti · · Score: 5, Funny

      For the most part it went smooth and nice, but what amazes me is why the X stuff is still somewhat awkward. Hardware is certainly not bleeding edge
      apt is pretty magical, but expecting a dist-upgrade to upgrade your hardware is a bit much.
    2. Re:Is it 1997 or 2007 ? by krmt · · Score: 5, Interesting

      We know it's a pain, and it's a major goal for the next release. The Debian X Strike Force burned the entire release cycle moving first from XFree86 to Xorg, and then from the monolithic Xorg to modular Xorg. By the time it all that was finished, about a year and a half had passed and there was a few months to polish things up for the release. During this time, essentially an entirely new team was built up (only one person from the team that worked on XFree86 in Sarge is still an active member) and there was huge changes as the entire codebase was repackaged for 7.0 and we moved from a private SVN repo to git.debian.org, which was no small feat while we did our best to keep the updates coming at a good pace.

      So expect to see some improvements to this stuff in the next year or so. A lot of work is happening at X.org to improve autoconfiguration, and Debian is moving to help develop it and deliver it to the users. Lenny is going to be really exciting from this point of view.

      --

      "I may not have morals, but I have standards."

  7. The *only* serious distro by alienmole · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'll see your flamebait and raise you...

    Who takes a distro seriously
    Oh please, does anyone other than script kiddies take any distro *other* than Debian seriously?
    Let's see:
    • There's Gentoo for the script kiddie/ricer set
    • RedHat for the clueless corporate types who're lost if they can't use a purchase order to obtain it
    • Fedora for the lost souls who haven't yet figured out that it's never going to recover from RedHat's abandonment
    • Suse is a German distro owned by Novell -- see RedHat
    • Ubuntu is an ancient African word, meaning "I can't configure Debian" (as someone's sig once said)
    • Lots of other small distros with funny names that won't be around in two years time
    OK, Slackware is great for hobbyists, I'll give you that.

    So anwyay, which are the distros we're supposed to be taking seriously? Besides Debian?