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Why do you think Debian for servers only ? Did you use Debian SID or Testing as a desktop ?

I have used in my life many different Linux distributions: Slackware, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian (professionally or privately). My private choice is the only one not driven by marketing: Debian.

You have three main Debian releases:

  SID (if you need to be as close as possible to upstream versions)

  Testing (the same as above but a few days after SID)

  Stable (you sacrifice the latest software versions for insane stability)
Which one did you use ?

And please don't mix Debian and Ubuntu.

Canonical is commercial company driven by profit (and CEO's bonus).

Debian is driven by community and (mostly) engineers.


I used Stable and SID. The reason I mixed Debian and Ubuntu is because I perceive the root of shittiness to be apt and how it can, and often does, poison your system.

What do you mean by "poison" ? Be specific. Very specific.

running apt install can brick your system in both large ways, it just stops booting. Or small ways, breaking existing packages or a myriad of other ways. On the one hand this is the fault of apt itself. It allows package scripts to do way too much. And on the other hand package maintainers write honestly brain damaged scripts a lot of the time.

Sounds similar to my experience with other systems (like Red Hat). Amazing - you've just realised that IT systems don't always work. Welcome to IT world !

"welcome to IT world" is just dismissive and needlessly aggravating. Just because systems can break doesn’t mean we should throw up our hands and accept the terrible state Debian package management is in. Debian-style package management has specific architectural issues, combined with maintainers writing poor package scripts, that make breakage seem far more common than it should be.

I asked you to be very specific. And you refused. You are criticizing "apt" for "specific architectural issues" but it is still very, very vague. Once again - be specific please. Can you? What exactly are the "specific architectural issues" ?

If you worked for a politician, you would look like hired by PR agency to throw a sh..t on someone else. I believe (and hope) you are not ?


I didn't refuse, I gave a very specific answer, namely that debians package manager can brick your system at any time because there are literally no safety mechanisms. That is the "specific architectural issues" I'm talking about. What more do you want? The code to prove it? Here it is: https://gist.github.com/rowanG077/27cd0a9417dd48593e63018783...

You are right: you didn't refuse, you are cheating (especially people who don't understand nuances)

You provided a content of a deb package that is intentionally malicious. It is like a saying that car from specific car manufacturer is dangerous for people. When asked "why" your answer is: "Because you can suddenly turn the car and hit people waiting at a bus station".

BTW, I hope you already know that in i.e. Red Hat you don't need rpm package to brick your system. It's much, much easier.

You are a troll.


You are talking about Debian stable which is released approximately once in 2 years. People who want to have more (most ?) recent software on Debian should go for Debian Testing. Or Debian Sid, which gets upstream updates almost instantly but requires more Linux knowledge in case something gets broken.


Ubuntu is based on Debian Sid which is considered as the least stable release in Debian community.


This is a non sequitur because "stability" in Debian has a specific meaning and Canonical also does things to ensure their release works properly.


Canonical doesn't have capacity to change over 60000 packages prepared by Debian community.


Ubuntu is optimised for corporations, as this is the main source of income for Canonical. Try Debian _testing_.


Even better is Debian testing :-)


Because you used Debian stable (which is mostly for servers). Try Debian Testing. And don't get fooled by its name "testing" - it is because Debian community reserved "stable" for Debian stable. Debian testing is also stable :-)


You are comparing Fedora with Debian stable. Everyone who wants to have Debian stability (and ecosystem) with the most new upstream software should go for Debian Testing (and don't be fooled by the name "testing" !). Debian Stable is for servers, Debian Testing is for desktops. Just try Debian Testing (and I used Slack, Red Hat, Ubuntu, Debian)


This is from like 20 years ago, but I remember Debian Testing as the one where updates broke the system most frequently, or maybe the longest without fixes: Stable was stable, Sid / unstable was what most Debian developers were using... and Testing was the weird thing that was neither a release nor tested and fixed "live" by developers.

What changed?


Most of the problems that break a system are being resolved in unstable rather than testing.

I've ran testing on my home server, though since it's a bit old now I've switched it over to stable when testing switched to stable.


This is how the flow happens: [upstream] -> [Debian Sid] -> [Debian Testing] -> [Debian stable]

The testing happens in Debian Sid.


But who actually tests Testing? If it's not the Debian developers themselves, fixes could take a while. I seem to recall Testing breaking because of package version combinations that never existed, so were never tested, in Sid.


The same question applies to any other distribution (Fedora, Arch, etc): who tests them ?


Debian testing is pretty much the worst option to choose. It can be as "unstable" as unstable, while being nearly as out-dated as a stable at points.

If you want to help Debian test the next release and actually report issues choose Debian testing.


The "testing" name is one of the worst decision of Debian community IMHO. It misleads people.


I very much agree with this, it also scared me off Debian Testing initially as well.

I wonder how many potential users have been scared off by the name... Maybe Debian devs like it that way, less annoying desktop users to support.


It looks like you have never used Debian testing (or used it 10 years ago ?). The testing phase is in Debian Sid and _not_ in Debian testing.


How do you organise them across many windows ? I found it difficult to categorize them by topic (i.e. one window with topic X, another window by topic Y and so on)


The danger with TikTok is that some already used it to influence elections (recently in Romania) so it is proven to be working.


It's important to differentiate worries here.

Issue #1: The platform owner itself uses the platform algorithm(s) to manipulate public opinion

Issue #2: Third parties use the platform to manipulate public opinion (e.g. Romania)

#1 could be solved by algorithmic transparency.

#2 could be solved by more realtime transparency into content.


People not associated with the app developer publishing material on TikTok to influence elections works just as well on YouTube Shorts and Reels.


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