Any Debian Based Rolling Release Distros?

[snowpine]

I noticed that in Debian testing the firefox version is still 3.5 (also in sid) but in Ubuntu 9.10 the version is 3.6.3 if you install from launchpad repos. Is there a reason to keep this older version or are developers just busy?

This really makes no sense to me as I was thinking to change from Ubuntu to Debian only for more recent versions of software and this doesn't seem very "rolling" to me. Also I want to install sofware from repos, not to lurk billion web pages for newer .debs.

Debian has more of an emphasis on stability than Ubuntu; contrary to popular belief, packages are tested before they go into Sid and it isn't really a "bleeding edge" distro at all. Many packages in Ubuntu are newer than even the "unstable" branch of Debian (I consider this a bad thing; Ubuntu is somewhat notorious for rushing buggy software into "stable" releases).

Sid is currently in a fairly stable state; a lot of big changes (Iceweasel 3.6 and KDE 4.4 come to mind) are being held back because the Debian team is focused on then next stable release (Squeeze). Once Squeeze comes out later this year, there will be a big flood of new packages into Sid and eventually Testing, and things will be pretty exciting for a while.

Are you sure you really need a "rolling release"? In my experience, many users who think they need rolling release really just want a stable distro with the newest Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. (which is really easy to achieve with any distro).

[Laxman_prodigy]

Debian has more of an emphasis on stability than Ubuntu; contrary to popular belief, packages are tested before they go into Sid and it isn't really a "bleeding edge" distro at all. Many packages in Ubuntu are newer than even the "unstable" branch of Debian (I consider this a bad thing; Ubuntu is somewhat notorious for rushing buggy software into "stable" releases).

Sid is currently in a fairly stable state; a lot of big changes (Iceweasel 3.6 and KDE 4.4 come to mind) are being held back because the Debian team is focused on then next stable release (Squeeze). Once Squeeze comes out later this year, there will be a big flood of new packages into Sid and eventually Testing, and things will be pretty exciting for a while.

Are you sure you really need a "rolling release"? In my experience, many users who think they need rolling release really just want a stable distro with the newest Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. (which is really easy to achieve with any distro).

Will Debian Squeeze be released late this year?

[snowpine]

Will Debian Squeeze be released late this year?

Debian does not have fixed release dates. It's ready when it's ready.

[Laxman_prodigy]

Debian does not have fixed release dates. It's ready when it's ready.

I wonder what would happen to all those Debian-based distros if Debian wasn't there working hard?

[TeemuN]

Debian has more of an emphasis on stability than Ubuntu; contrary to popular belief, packages are tested before they go into Sid and it isn't really a "bleeding edge" distro at all. Many packages in Ubuntu are newer than even the "unstable" branch of Debian (I consider this a bad thing; Ubuntu is somewhat notorious for rushing buggy software into "stable" releases).

Sid is currently in a fairly stable state; a lot of big changes (Iceweasel 3.6 and KDE 4.4 come to mind) are being held back because the Debian team is focused on then next stable release (Squeeze). Once Squeeze comes out later this year, there will be a big flood of new packages into Sid and eventually Testing, and things will be pretty exciting for a while.

Are you sure you really need a "rolling release"? In my experience, many users who think they need rolling release really just want a stable distro with the newest Firefox, OpenOffice, etc. (which is really easy to achieve with any distro).

Well, that makes sense, thank you. The Debian installation would have become mainly for testing (at least at first) and for trying to build system from scratch without programs that I don't even know of. Ubuntu and a couple of ppa:s work very well for me.

[renkinjutsu]

I noticed that in Debian testing the firefox version is still 3.5 (also in sid) but in Ubuntu 9.10 the version is 3.6.3 if you install from launchpad repos. Is there a reason to keep this older version or are developers just busy?

This really makes no sense to me as I was thinking to change from Ubuntu to Debian only for more recent versions of software and this doesn't seem very "rolling" to me. Also I want to install sofware from repos, not to lurk billion web pages for newer .debs.

You can also add ubuntu PPA's to your debian sources.list.. i've done this without any harmful effects.

[kevCast]

I noticed that in Debian testing the firefox version is still 3.5 (also in sid) but in Ubuntu 9.10 the version is 3.6.3 if you install from launchpad repos. Is there a reason to keep this older version or are developers just busy?

This really makes no sense to me as I was thinking to change from Ubuntu to Debian only for more recent versions of software and this doesn't seem very "rolling" to me. Also I want to install sofware from repos, not to lurk billion web pages for newer .debs.

You could pull Iceweasel from experimental, although I wouldn't advise it. On my sid install, I normally just pull the latest stable firefox and xulrunner from mercurial and build them myself. That way I don't have the whole Iceweasel thing, and I get updates in a timely manner. Plus I needed xulrunner for conkeror. I'd stay far away from untrusted .debs from the internet.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Build_Documentation
https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Simple_Firefox_build
http://markshroyer.com/blog/2009/07/...ian-amd64.html

[L_V]

Debian is Working on a Rolling Version of their Distro

Unofficial Debian Monthly Testing Snapshot Release (version 2011.03 final)

[Artemis3]

Debian could have solved the "always obsolete" issue by implementing PPAs. Backports, unfortunately, most of the time don't have what you need when you need, and the Unstable/Testing branches can break from time to time.

We should see if this is any better than using unstable+experimental...

ubuntu minimal + ppa also does a fine job.

Adding Ubuntu PPAs to Debian? Only for experts, it involves the same risks of using Ubuntu repositories in a Debian install, it can break havoc, ie, not a recommended...

But if Debian had its own official PPA server, and anything there self-compiled against stable, it would make a worlds difference.

[BrokenKingpin]

I was running the Linux Mint Debian Edition, but a recent update broke my system... so back to Ubuntu for now.