90
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
90 points (96.9% liked)
Linux
45457 readers
1711 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
To be clear, Debian "stability" refers to "unchanging packages", not "doesn't crash." Debian would rather ship a known bug for a year than update the package if it's not explicitly a security bug (and then only certain packages).
So if you have a crash in Debian, you will always have that crash until the next version of debian a year or so from now. That's not what I'd consider "stable" but rather "consistent"
Well, in fairness, I didn't name it.
You're right. There are multiple definitions of the word stable, and "unchanging" is a valid one of them.
It's just that every where else I've seen it in computing, it refers to a build of something being not-crashy enough to actually ship. "Can't be knocked over" sort of stability. And everyone I've ever talked to outside of Lemmy has assumed that was what "stable" meant to Debian. but it doesn't. It just means "versions won't change so you won't have version compatibility issues, but you'll also be left with several month to year old software that wasn't even up to date when this version released, but at least you don't have to think about the compatibility issues!"
I agree. I used Debian for a very long time but found a move to Sid for fresh packages to be a frustrating experience so I just moved to an ubu based system.