[vox-tech] aptitude problems after a couple dist-upgrades

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Bill Kendrick (nbs at sonic.net):

> On Thu, Sep 21, 2006 at 11:34:40AM -0700, Troy Arnold wrote:
> > good luck!  p.s. Check out Kubuntu.  For years I've been running Debian
> > Sid/KDE and now I'm totally stoked on Kubuntu.  I don't feel like I've
> > given up anything except frustration by switching over.  Well, that and
> > lots of practice fixing packaging problems...
> 
> I hate to say it, but... me too ;)

You shouldn't hate to say it.  ;->  Speaking as a Debian user, I think
it's only common sense to recognise that a _large_ part of the impetus
behind Ubuntu/Kubuntu was to meet a need for leading-edge GNOME/KDE 
systems that cannot be well met on stock Debian.

Debian-stable gives you a (very) stable GNOME and/or KDE desktop, but
not a leading-edge one.  Debian-testing or Debian-unstable ("sid") 
gives you access to leading-edge software that is almost uniformly 
excellent and stable for both desktop and server systems, but with three
problem areas:

o  Various packages based on the Mozilla runtime.
o  GNOME
o  KDE

What those have in common is that that they are "dependency hairballs".
That is, they have very tangled and complex dependency trees, and
essentially form suites of packages that must be upgraded in lockstep or
not at all.  Debian-unstable _usually_ introduces new packages in those 
areas in lockstep, but not always.  Debian-testing is further from the
bleeding edge, but worse about introducing those suites' packages in 
coordinated fashion, because of the effect of the automated quarantining
script that populates Testing from Unstable (and which causes related
packages to sometimes clear quarantine with different delays).

Ubuntu was designed specifically, in part, to have a near-edge suite of
GNOME packages that are always maintained in coordinated fashion, not
just as individual packages that get uploaded as package maintainers
release them to the build system.  Kubuntu does the same for KDE.

Since I _vastly_ prefer Window Maker, Fluxbox, Ion, Blackbox, ICEwm, etc., 
I stick with my traditional Debian-testing/Debian-unstable setup.  ;->