Re: [LAU] Audio distros

On 02/16/2013 03:20 AM, Simon Wise wrote:
> On 16/02/13 14:40, Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>> On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 07:14:12 +0100, david <gnome@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
>>> No clue how they'll do. I prefer Debian Sid
>
>> Debian Sid might be ok, I just have no good feelings regarding to the
>> state
>> "unstable".
>
> in Debian unstable means changing (4 times a day I think), stable means
> frozen ... i.e. you have the choice of a version with very current
> packages (obviously also somewhat less tested) or one which is very much
> more tested but based on a freeze that was 6 months ago when it is first
> released, up to 30 months ago by the time it is replaced by next stable
> version. The freeze really means frozen, but there is the backports
> system with newer packages if you want.
>
> One way to use sid is install it on a second partition, work with it for
> a bit updating only those few bits that need the fresh fixes ... then
> once you get the system working as you want ... leave it alone! Forget
> about the system and do your audio. Some time later you may be tempted
> by some new features in versions that are now months ahead of the rest
> of your system, here you need to be careful. Apt-get will show you what
> it is about to do, say no if it is too drastic! Best copy your system to
> that other partition so you have a known fully working backup ... then
> upgrade etc.
>
> Something that the (now quite inactive) aptosid did so they could offer
> a rolling sid using dist-upgrade was they set up a special runlevel in
> init without X for doing the upgrades in text mode. It isn't that hard,
> just tweak the /etc/rc.d directories and do init 3 (or whatever) before
> upgrading. And yes, init and run levels are the default in the soon to
> be released new stable so it will be default there for another two
> years. They tend to be very conservative with core system stuff. I used
> aptosid for many years without a hitch, but they kept a close eye on
> problems and held back updates with issues so you could dist-upgrade
> from time to time quite safely.
>
> Eventually you will want to upgrade properly ... install a fresh,
> current sid in your other partition or whatever and get it set up as you
> like it before swapping to that as your main system.
>
> The other very workable Debian option is to use the current stable with
> a few newer packages from backports. You get much less of the latest,
> but you do not live on the edge either. I haven't done that but there
> are at least a few audio packages that get their newish versions ported
> on backports.

The way to handle updates on Sid: start with Aptosid. Update only those
apps that you find you need to update. I use Rosegarden, and it had some
bug fixes that addressed issues I had with it, and Debian Stable was
never going to get the fixes. (Neither did backports, as far as I know,
but when I was using Stable, I found backports pretty useless.)

FWIW, I'm running Sid on my two main systems (desktop and laptop). I
also have deb-multimedia in the repository collection, along with a
couple of PPAs such as one for the real cdrecord.

-- 
David
gnome@email-addr-hidden
authenticity, honesty, community
http://clanjones.org/david/
http://dancing-treefrog.deviantart.com/
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