this post was submitted on 08 Dec 2023
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You probably have your reason to run Debian testing but I read somewhere that testing is somehow a bad idea as desktop environment !
If somehing is stuck and being updated in sid, and bugs are still happening, you could be stuck for month without the correct update in testing.
Sorry if it's not clear, but I read it somewhere in the official debian documentation.
Hey, I appreciate your warning.
For a bit of context, I have been a Debian user for almost 30 years now. Mostly using
testingfor desktop / workstation systems, andstableon servers and containers. Debian is comfortable and provides me with stability where I need and cutting-edge where I want. It mostly "just works" with great defaults for everything, and it's easy to customise where I desire.With that out of the way: you're not wrong. In fact, the
testingFAQ describes situations where these kinds of breakages could happen.That said, this is exceedingly rare if not nearly unheard of, and I can always pull packages from
sidorexperimentalif I need (like I do Mesa).Edit to add: for anyone interested in trying out Debian
testing, please check out the Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTestingEdit 2: I have published a blog post describing my setup if you're interested: https://blog.c10l.cc/09122023-debian-gaming
Thank you for your insights and personal experiences :) I love Debian stable as server, never had any issues on a old Asus laptop ! I have only 2 years of "experience" and started with Ubuntu. Good introduction to linux but switched to Debian (<3)
That's way I'm asking arround I don't wan't to have a too bad experience with Debian as main personal PC !
Thank you for your personal blog post and the wiki link :) will surely read through before making my final choice !
No worries! I also posted the blog on this community (https://lemmy.world/post/9543661) and someone mentioned in the comments they’re running Debian stable for gaming.
That can also be an option if you’d like to avoid testing for the minute, though I’m not sure what pitfalls that setup might have.
Good luck on your journey!
Debian testing is insanely robust. I am currently not running it (testing) because I use it for work, but my past experience has been excellent.
My desktop has been Debian testing since Jessie. I was inconvenienced a total of 2 times where something broke and made an app unuseable. My KDE menu was fixed within a day and my torrenting app took longer to fix, but I was able to apply a one line fix in the meantime with help from our awesome community.
I know it's named "testing", but I'd bet it would be very stable for most people's use cases and trade off is absolutely worth it if people would give it a try.
Do you consider testing a better choice than sid for desktop/gaming environment?
I'm really not sure which one I should use. I only have experience with bare bone debian stable as server, I'm trying to find the best choice when switching from windaube to debian :)
Thanks for your insights and personal experiences !
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I think it's better for desktop. Stable is truly targetted for servers and desktop users will only be mildy inconvenienced once in a blue moon.
Thanks :))))
To answer that, you must understand how testing works. Packages first are updated in Sid (unstable), then they go to Testing. At a certain point of the release cycle, Testing stops being updated to become the new Stable version. So basically Testing is not constantly updated. Also, security patches don't follow this route: instead, they arrive in Sid first (thanks to the maintainers themselves) and then they get into Stable first (by the Debian team) because Stable has the priority. Only after that, they arrive in Testing.
Also see this paragraph from the Debian Wiki regarding security:
Also:
My advice to everyone who wants Debian to be more current is to just run Sid (unstable). It's always going to be more secure and up-to date than Testing. Also, it works like a rolling-release distro, i.e. the updates are incremental and constant
EDIT: whatever you do, read and follow this guide. apt-listbugs and apt-listchanges especially will save your ass constantly
Thank you for your nice write up and your link ! I think I will follow your guts and personal experiences ! Thank your for pre-saving my ass !! <3
Glad to be able to help! Have fun :)