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Debian 8.8 Released (debian.org)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the delivering-Debian dept.

prisoninmate quotes Softpedia: The Debian Project announced today Debian GNU/Linux 8.8, the most advanced stable version of the Jessie series, which brings corrections for numerous packages and various security flaws discovered and patched since the release of the Debian GNU/Linux 8.7 maintenance update back in mid-January 2017... "This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available," reads today's announcement.

"Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 8 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old 'jessie' CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated."
Debian 8.8 contains more than 150 bug fixes and security updates.

65 comments

  1. I love it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They aren't bug fixes or patches anymore. They're "corrections." How cute. Wouldn't want to alarm anyone.

    1. Re:I love it. by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      How about "We think we got it right this time."?

  2. Hopefully they fixed the systemd bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    the one where systemd is installed

    1. Re:Hopefully they fixed the systemd bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Devuan 1 RC2 is out. Wait and see ..

    2. Re:Hopefully they fixed the systemd bug by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have to agree..

      Just today on my laptop I ran across something I've never seen before; I couldn't do a "shutdown -r now". The command sat there for 15 seconds or so and then print something about being unable to contact the init process.

      I ended up forcing a poweroff with the power button...

    3. Re:Hopefully they fixed the systemd bug by ruir · · Score: 1

      Running Debian 8 and 9 in a couple hundred VMs without system installed. Running FreeBSD on my notebook....

  3. Debian and systemd issues :) by najajomo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    systemd issues .. 626 open ...

    1. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Systemd's issues are only getting worse with time.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    2. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Has systemd paid off yet for RedHat in known way? Perhaps it was supposed to be a temporary competitive advantage but it seems it must just be a cost instead.

    3. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't want systemd anywhere near my servers either, but open bug counts are a pretty meaningless metric. It just means more people are using it than before, but we knew that already from the many voices complaining about it being forced upon them.

      Better to point out individual long standing critical bugs where the only developer replies are the kind where they insult the user instead of addressing the problem. :)

    4. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Well, that is no surprise at all to anybody competent. The tricky things about KISS is that hacking something complex together initially that sort-of works is a lot easier than coming up with a simple solution initially. Over time, the simple solution then becomes massively better in terms of overall cost, because it is only gets easier to maintain and it stability is massively better, while the complex solution slowly deteriorates into total trash.

      Inexperienced developers (like the systemd team) have not experienced that effect themselves or did not understand it when it happened and stupid developers (like the systemd team) do not know that because they ignored everybody that warned of the effect and also failed to actually educated themselves from the literature. This is not the fist time this happens, after all, systemd is just an especially striking example of extreme developer incompetence.

      Incidentally, the gross KISS violation of systemd is (besides the dishonorable and utterly despicable campaign for its adoption) the main criticism of systemd.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    5. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Red Hat makes a lot of money from support. Having a permanent source of errors that is hard to get rid of and produces hard to diagnose errors (like systemd) is good for business form them, at least in the short run.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    6. Re: Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then this is working out great for Redhat. They should give pottering a medal.

    7. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Over time, the simple solution then becomes massively better in terms of overall cost, because it is only gets easier to maintain and it stability is massively better, while the complex solution slowly deteriorates into total trash.

      Yeah, it's not like anybody has ever seen a simple solution grow into a unmaintainable mess over time as more and more features and work-arounds are bolted on...

    8. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better to point out individual long standing critical bugs where the only developer replies are the kind where they insult the user instead of addressing the problem. :)

      Isn't that the hallmark of the open source experience?

    9. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by KiloByte · · Score: 1

      And even that's with them WONTFIXing the vast majority of valid reports.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    10. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Regarding that, it's baffling to see that such a piece of shit by incompetent stupid developers gets so widely adopted over the entire industry. Commercial distros, hobby distros, some embedded systems, you name it. I guess most developers are just ignorant idiots drinking the kool-aid.

      Luckily enough, looking at all the systemd-free distro's popping up everywhere and thriving, there are plenty of devs smarter than that, that actually do the work and code to ensure a systemd-free future for the people that know better.

      Another good example of such a phenomenon, is the final falling apart of the monster of complexity called X, which looks to be successfully replaced by Wayland, a much simpler, elegant, efficient design. May we soon bury X's rotten corpse and piss on her grave!

      And it's all thanks to OSS. Free for the taking (or leaving) and modifying! Yay!

    11. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Informative

      After reading the first 4 pages of those I've yet to find something that is actually relevant to the primary use for Debian: desktops and servers.

      Looks like many edge cases when you're running e.g. a RasbperryPi with a RTC that has a flat battery, or an architecture that isn't in common use, or mildly annoying crap like timers wrong, or minor parse errors.

      What I do note is the number of them have fixes in the pipeline and have milestones attached to them. This is surprising because based on Slashdot wisdom the devs don't respond to bugs and everything is by design.

    12. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      That is the graph of every project ever during its growth phase. Once critical mass is reached across edge cases the blue line will keep going up (probably at the same linear pace) while your red line will peak and start dropping.

    13. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Well it's been growing for the past 7 years. When does the growth phase end?

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    14. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      When does the growth phase end?

      When it ends. That's the wonderful problem with adoption in Linux, things take time. I may have been released 7 years ago, but only 2 years ago last week a major upstream distribution adopted it formally adding not only another large portion of the desktop / server eco system to the platform, but also exposing a whole world of smaller devices that previously didn't need it in the first place (Debian forms the base of a lot more small embedded systems than SUSE or RedHat).

      Actually now that I think about it, that is likely to explain why the OP's link leads to a page that has 4 pages of bugs not at all relevant to running Linux on a desktop or server. Things like: this random thing doesn't work on ARM, or problems accessing external RealTimeClock when one isn't included on an SoC and that sort of thing.

      The last 2 years introduced (and will continue to introduce going forward) a shit load of new edge cases.

    15. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One may wonder if it is a case of the tail wagging the dog.

      That RH is supplying a convenient source of funding and legitimacy, but otherwise is not involved in the politics of getting systemd adopted.

      Instead it is an attempt by a group of developers to circumvent the policies that Torvalds holds kernel devs to (notice that a close compatriot of Poettering is Sievers, who at more than one occasion has gotten a dressing down by Torvalds).

      In effect they are building a second kernel, so that the true kernel is just a convenient supplier of drivers. Meaning that they are pretty much recreating Android, where the Dalvik VM worked to isolate Android apps from Linux internals.

      It is about boxing in the freedoms offered by GNU/Linux being an assembly of independent parts. This because a bunch of DE devs think that this is why there have been no year of the Linux desktop yet. This while they keep breaking APIs and ABIs at a whim, failing to see that stability of both are why Windows is top dog on the desktop, and why the Linux kernel, but not their beloved userspace, is in used in all manner of products.

    16. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      That's the wonderful problem with adoption in Linux, things take time.

      not at all. after red hat started using it (because they deemed it "good enough"), it was adopted quite quickly. the problem here is a fundamental one of design, scope and (lack of) documentation.

      I've examined some of the source but the sheer amount of code involved is absurd. With so much code, they cannot help but have an endless supply of bugs.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    17. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yes I'm sure all the downstream distros based on Debian fell over themselves to adopt it when RedHat did.
      No you're missing the point. You said 7 years, but only 2 years ago a major milestone was added which included millions of more users in many new edge cases, hence a new series of bugs that will eventually be closed off.

      Systemd has reached past its growth point in terms of features. Your theory is similar to how economists think companies should perform: and endless stream of increasing profits. You don't get an endless stream of bugs, and as shown with most of the ones on the Debian mailing list a lot of them would have been quite difficult to expose in the first place.

      Like everything it will taper unless someone decides to do a ground up re-write of systemd.

    18. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      You said 7 years, but only 2 years ago a major milestone was added which included millions of more users in many new edge cases

      No, 2 years ago they switched to github (from sourceforge?), that's why the graph only has two years.

      Your theory is similar to how economists think companies should perform: and endless stream of increasing profits. You don't get an endless stream of bugs

      My point is Systemd is going to be replaced before they finally catch up with all the bugs,

      Like everything it will taper unless someone decides to do a ground up re-write of systemd.

      I don't think it will be a rewrite but rather a replacement with similar functionality that is more modular as to be broken into several projects.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    19. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by xtronics · · Score: 1

      Ahh -- the more bugs reported and fixed the better it gets..

      Anyway - the anti systemd folks are rather wrong.

      I used systemV for servers and desktops for years - didn't really lookforward to the change - but even in my 60''s it only took a day to adjust.

      I now support a few servers and several desktops all running systemd and just haven't had any problems.
      My hunch is some people get used to their first txt editor and will never want to change - same with an init system.. They must be older than me and set in their ways.

    20. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Ahh -- the more bugs reported and fixed the better it gets..

      This assumes that at some point they are fixing bugs faster than they are adding new ones but in general, yes.

      Anyway - the anti systemd folks are rather wrong.

      I'm not against the concept of systemd, I'm against the implementation of systemd. Basically, it's a train wreck of waaaay too much code with little to no documentation. However, I strongly object to code that depends on a specific init system.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    21. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by xtronics · · Score: 1

      Really - I'm an old fart - made my own cheat-sheet - just isn't that hard.

      https://xtronics.com/wiki/Syst...

      My biggest complaint was the replacement for ls /etc/init.d/ was too much to type.

    22. Re:Debian and systemd issues :) by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      You seem to be misunderstanding my grievance. The problem isn't what it is or how you use it but rather it's code architecture and the ungodly amount of computer code used to construct it. I'm talking about C code, not command line shit.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  4. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by LiENUS · · Score: 0

    You're running a RC in production?

  5. Re:This Just In by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    a liberal making racist statements? what a shock..

  6. "RELEASED" by darkain · · Score: 1

    Just put "RELEASED" in quotes. Per the article and Debian's own web site, 8.7.1 is still the latest ISO image available for download. This notice is really them just saying that they're marked the milestone for a particular patch level to eventually become the release when it is actually released. Until then, install older version and patch (or, just install something else without all the BS cruft, like FreeBSD)

    1. Re:"RELEASED" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well what do you expect... the /. editors still can't get the hint anyway that point releases like this simply are not news nor worthy of publication. 8.8 is the same fucking thing anyone with 8.0-8.7 installed *already has* if they keep their system up-to-date and what anyone installing any of those would get first time they run an update themselves.

    2. Re:"RELEASED" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Debian point releases aren't really worth a slashdot article anyway.

      They're the ones you get with a plain apt-get upgrade

      Anyone administering a Debian system should notice a point release having happened when there's suddenly about a dozen or two of packages to upgrade instead of the normal 1-5 packages.

    3. Re:"RELEASED" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This shows a misunderstanding of the Debian release cycle.

      If you use the 8.7.1 ISOs to do a standard install Debian today, you'll get Debian 8.8; the install process will download and install the updated software where appropriate.

      Debian 8.8 is an update to Debian 8.7; the next stable release, Debian 9, is a different branch and you'd need to use "testing" install media (if/when available) to get that.

    4. Re:"RELEASED" by fnj · · Score: 1

      Nonsense. 8.8.0 is the one that shows up in the download listing.

      At the present instant the download link on the main page is broken, but it took me about 15 seconds to find the actual download listing.

  7. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    systemd distros are in perpetual RC.

  8. FreeBSD folks by Billly+Gates · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Large supported and mature code base used by large amounts of people. Closest to Debian in it's community and server oriented features. No SystemD, jails, ZFS, dtrace, ports, pkg-add, and the award winning FreeBSD handbook and better manpages.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
    1. Re:FreeBSD folks by 0100010001010011 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And isn't even that bad as a laptop machine.

      AwesomeWM is 'OS' independent so my interface is the same.

      NVidia has drivers.

      Wifi and Sound work fine.

      I had an easier time getting sound working in FreeBSD than I did with Debian and PulseAudio (who designed that ....)

    2. Re:FreeBSD folks by ruir · · Score: 1

      I second that. I bought a brand new Lenovo and was amazed how well FreeBSD works there.

    3. Re:FreeBSD folks by fnj · · Score: 1

      Jeeze, pkg-add was obsoleted years ago. pkg is current.

  9. Re:It is appficial. by Mike+Sheen · · Score: 1

    I keep seeing posts like like - is there some reason for it? Is this an attempt to associate some keywords to other keywords so search engines somehow associate the two (like this example associating "Luddite" with "app")? What is the point?

  10. Re:It is appficial. by Mike+Sheen · · Score: 1

    *like this

  11. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Billly+Gates · · Score: 4, Informative

    FreeBSD is alot more mature and well supported and is also server oriented. Sadly, Duvuan is what Debian should be. You can use SystemD if you want in Duvuan. You can also use OpenRC or Ubuntus event driven startup I think called startupd, or old school Unix init. Use whatever you want man. But it has no support except for a few angry exdebian users.

    With FreeBSD you also get jails,dtrace, ports, pkg-add, award winning TCP/IP stack that invented the world wide web, stability which Juniper, pfense, and even Cisco once used, and better documentation with the FreeBSD handbook and better manpages and cool stuff in /usr/share/doc. Only downside is java support and it's virtualization servers are weaker than KMS (which FreeBSD does support an older version as a host). It really feels like a Unix that doesn't try to pretend to be anything else. Getting a gui going is a little more work but in the pkg-add and ports.

    I use FreeBSD's pfsense for all my virtual routers on my virtual machine collection at home which is another cool thing if you do not want to fiddle awhile getting a cisco environment up. You can buy pfsense hardware racks too which are great for small to medium sized offices that do not need or want to pay the Cisco tax.

    --
    http://saveie6.com/
  12. Re:It is appficial. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its an AI spluttering into life, attempting to be a netizen ...

  13. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You should care as Devuan is built on top of Debian just like Ubuntu and derivatives.

    If Debian goes down the tubes and the package devs walk away then the floor falls out all the downstream remixes implode too.

  14. Fix your charing skills! by szy · · Score: 2

    Systemd's issues are only getting worse with time.

    The scales on this chart for the secondary vertical axis makes it unreadable. Qty of open issues would have been much easier to read if only one axis was used. If the author insists to use a secondary axis, then at least make the major points in sync with the primary vertical axis.

    1. Re:Fix your charing skills! by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

      Systemd's issues are only getting worse with time.

      The scales on this chart for the secondary vertical axis makes it unreadable.

      don't blame me, blame the people who made it.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  15. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please stop trying to make random people use BSD. You probably did the same for Linux, a few years ago. Consider what it did to Linux.

    BSD is not for the masses. Yes, that sounds elitist, but fuck it. I just want a decent OS, and I want it to stay that way.

    Thanks for considering.

  16. Re:It is appficial. by ruir · · Score: 1

    Are you having deja vu sensations? It must be a glitch of the Matrix...

  17. Re: Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Type44Q · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Relax. He's not trying to encourage random people to switch to BSD; he's trying to encourage intelligent people to switch.

    You're safe. :)

  18. Re:It is appficial. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    idk but that shit made me lmao

    it's like an edit of some old pasta from 15 years ago about some shit no one remembers like apache or netbsd or something

  19. Call it something else please! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who wants to use software written by a mentally ill guy who killed himself (-Ian) and his girlfriend (Deb-)? Just rename it already! (Same goes for Raspb-ian.)

    If I want to be constantly reminded of misery like that I'll set my wallpaper to a Sid-n-Nancy picture.

  20. Re: Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intelligent people don't use Slashdot....

  21. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    BSD is not for the masses. Yes, that sounds elitist, but fuck it. I just want a decent OS, and I want it to stay that way.

    Well, you could use a Mac and OS X - oh wait, it's based on BSD. Never mind.

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  22. Re:Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Throw them in a BSD jail...

  23. Re: Don't care anymore, switched to Devuan. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intelligent people don't use Slashdot....

    How would you know the difference? You are here, after all...