Package hierarchy

[Mustang64]

Let me see if I got this right – from LEAST complete to MOST complete

Experimental – like a pre-alpha release
Unstable – this would be an alpha release
Testing – then this is the beta or pre-public release
Stable – and this is the finished program ready for market

Did I get it right?

GMD

[eco2geek]

One might look at it like this:

Experimental <--> Fedora Core 4 test 1
Debian Sid ("unstable") <--> Fedora Core 3
Debian Woody ("stable") <--> Red Hat Desktop/Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS/etc.

More technically:*

Debian stable: The branch in which development of packages has stopped, and which is only updated for bug fixes and security reasons. (There is a Debian security team that actively works on security updates for Debian stable, but not for testing or unstable.)

Debian testing: The branch which includes packages that have been in unstable for two weeks with no bug reports. Will, sometime soon, become "frozen" and then become the next "stable" version.

Debian unstable: The branch which includes packages under development, but fit for regular users.

Experimental: Packages both under development and in an alpha testing state, not deemed fit for regular users.

(Debian unstable is, in my experience, a hell of a lot more stable than Fedora Core.)

* References: Debian Reference, "Debian Distributions" section; the Glossary section from the NewbieDoc Project

[mr_ed]

About stable (which is presently the release called woody) Debian says this:

This is the production release of Debian, the one which we primarily recommend using.

It's not necessarily the one other people might recommend because some of it has been sitting on the shelf a long time - the installer, for example, is pretty stale.

Sarge, the release occupying the testing slot right now, is in darned good shape and has much more flexible and capable installation. Ummm ... as a matter of fact, it's what I'm booted into right now. (I usually fire up Knoppix to cruise the Knoppix forums.)

-- Ed