
Updated Debian 9: 9.7 released - TimWolla
https://www.debian.org/News/2019/20190123
======
Panino
To everyone thinking about trying Debian...

Normally I run OpenBSD everywhere but I've got a Debian laptop that's nice to
use.

It's great to try other systems! Even if you're die-hard in favor of
something, trying something else will enrich your appreciation or even make
you fall in love with it again. Or it could make you realize you've been
missing out on some things that are actually pretty cool. And if you're a
hacker then maybe you'll just add the missing features. :-)

I've been using OpenBSD for almost 20 years so it's sort of a lifelong friend.
Even something as amazing as pledge/unveil don't bring me back to that "first
time" magic, although I gotta say they bring me _pretty_ close.

Some 3rd party software that comes with Debian is newer than that in OpenBSD,
and sometimes it's the other way around. Some things are nicer in Debian, like
the GUI wifi selection is pretty handy. OpenBSD has excellent wifi support
under the hood but no paint job if that makes sense. So at least for a laptop
that I'm carrying all over the place, Debian's wifi is pretty great.

You should try Debian! And OpenBSD, and Haiku, and ReactOS, or whatever has
your curiosity. These days it's comically easy to try a new OS. Even if
computers weren't historically cheap, they're so overpowered that you can
emulate them and run multiple virtual machines on a single box. "There's never
been a better time than now!"

I'll probably try VOID Linux next. Definitely give Debian a spin.

~~~
imcs
When you say Debian has nicer wifi UI than OpenBSD, isn't that dependent on
the DE? You never mentioned which DEs you use. If you run the same DE on both,
does it look noticeably different?

~~~
bubblethink
I think nicer in this case means just having one. OpenBSD doesn't have one at
all (unless you count cli as UI).

~~~
Crestwave
> (unless you count cli as UI)

It certainly is. But it isn't a GUI, which is what OP said.

------
teddyh
Please note: Starting with Debian 7, the minor number is not part of the
Debian release number, and numbers with a minor component like 9.4 or 9.7 now
indicate a _point_ release. Basically, only security updates and major bug
fixes, with new updated installation media images. This, 9.7, is _not_ a new
major release of Debian.

------
Barrin92
Always used Fedora but tempted to give Debian a try. Is there some general
consensus on what release to run on a day-to-day workstation? The docs seem to
discourage use of testing or sid, but many distros in the debian ecosystem
seem to pull from both repositories.

~~~
finnthehuman
The joke I've heard is: "unstable" means testing, "testing" means stable, and
"stable" means old.

I run stable for servers and testing for workstations. I don't use it on the
desktop much anymore, just my secondary computer at work for things that don't
require windows; and for VMs at home. I don't recall any bumps in the road on
testing in a long time, but I guess that all depends on which packages you use
and their maintainers.

~~~
LeoPanthera
Note that testing (unlike stable AND unstable) doesn't get security updates.

~~~
kelnos
Not _entirely_ true. Oldstable and stable get security updates from the Debian
Security Team. Unstable gets security updates as a part of package bumps, and
maintainers will usually be fairly quick to bump or patch a package in
unstable for security reasons. (IOW, Security Team doesn't touch unstable.)

Security-related updates from unstable usually get promoted to testing fairly
quickly (within a few days), depending on the severity of the vulnerability
and drift between the version of the package in testing and unstable.
Regardless, you can usually easily install security updates from unstable as
soon as they get uploaded.

------
prike
I'm using Debian on my work/travel laptop for 7 years now. Fast and very
stable. Definitely worth a try.

------
efiecho
I guess that Devuan is also affected by this, so does anyone know if updated
installation images will be available?

------
xmichael999
Already switched to Devuan and happier.

~~~
ggm
I've only had pain from systemd when I tried to put my own code under systemd.
running a closed-box with packages written for systemd, works fine for me.
YMMV

But having said that, I'm a BSD person partly-moved to Debian and I never came
strongly into it, before systemd deployed so my rc.d wishes were never met, so
I didn't go to devuan first.

