Experiances w/ either Buster or Sid

[cds60601]

I wanted to take a poll but for some reason, I don't seem to have that option.
Yes, I PM'ed someone and even sent an email almost 2 weeks ago. Anyways, I'll just ask here.

Would like to know how many are using either of the following on a production system (meaning, at home).

Testing - Buster
Unstable - Sid

Any adverse issues?

I have been using Buster for a good while now (simply because I need a package that is currently in Testing)
I don't know if I'll drop to Stable once that package goes to Backports simply because I kinda like the look and feel of Buster.
I will say that the past 3 days I have ventured into Arch. It's a bit much (and reminds me of my early days when I used FreeBSD)
but I found that while there is good and bad (mainly I really don't feel comfortable using the AUR repo - probably due to lack of understanding),
there are good reasons to make a move if you NEED certain apps that are more up to date.

Of course, Arch isn't really for the newb (unless you opt for something like Manjaro) and many of you know that already (simply speaking to any newb out there).
Anyways, just looking at options since it won't be too much longer when I build a new system and I'll
want to settle in instead of this stupid distro hopping as of late, lol.

Cheers
Chris

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Arch isn't really for the newb

^ I strongly disagree with this statement, the lack of abstraction in Arch makes it significantly easier to understand and manipulate and I think it's probably the best distribution for n00bs — I started using after a few months in GNU/Linux land and quite a while before I managed to figure out how to make pure Debian work with my dirty hardware.

Anyway, I've tried sid a few times and it is very nice but the minor b0rkage always annoys me after a few weeks; I use stable almost exclusively now with backports, flatpaks and git providing the shiny new crap.

[Wheelerof4te]

I've used Sid, but that was when I suffered from upgradetitis. Never suffer from upgradettis.

On a more serious note, save that bandwith and just use Stable+whatever backport you need.

[dcihon]

Using Testing for some time now.
No big issues.
Here is my system:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: cihonm Kernel: 4.17.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.3.0 Desktop: MATE 1.20.1 
           wm: Compiz dm: lightdm Distro: Debian GNU/Linux buster/sid 
Machine:   Type: Desktop System: Dell product: Inspiron 3650 v: X00 serial: <root required> Chassis: type: 3 
           serial: <root required> 
           Mobo: Dell model: 0C2XKD v: A01 serial: <root required> UEFI [Legacy]: Dell v: 3.6.0 
           date: 05/14/2018 
Battery:   Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech K520 serial: 2011-eb-c7-98-6b 
           charge: 70% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
           Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse serial: 4055-e5-45-e2-83 
           charge: 55% (should be ignored) status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i7-6700 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S rev: 3 
           L2 cache: 8192 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 54528 
           Speed: 3708 MHz min/max: 800/4000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3773 2: 3701 3: 3793 4: 3785 5: 3793 
           6: 3701 7: 3782 8: 3792 
Graphics:  Card-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tobago PRO [Radeon R7 360 / R9 360 OEM] driver: radeon 
           v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 1002:665f 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.0 driver: ati,radeon unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
           compositor: compiz resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: AMD BONAIRE (DRM 2.50.0 4.17.0-1-amd64 LLVM 6.0.1) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.1.5 
           compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Card-1: Intel Sunrise Point-H HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           chip ID: 8086:a170 
           Card-2: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Tobago HDMI Audio [Radeon R7 360 / R9 360 OEM] 
           driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 1002:aac0 
           Card-3: Logitech Webcam C270 type: USB driver: uvcvideo,snd-usb-audio bus ID: 1:5 chip ID: 046d:0825 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.17.0-1-amd64 
Network:   Card-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI 
           port: d000 bus ID: 02:00 chip ID: 10ec:8168 
           IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: 48:4d:7e:9f:4d:2f 
           Card-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k v: kernel 
           bus ID: 03:00 chip ID: 168c:0036 
           IF: wlp3s0 state: up mac: 90:cd:b6:50:f6:2d 
           Card-3: Atheros type: USB driver: usb-network bus ID: 1:13 chip ID: 0cf3:e005 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 4.60 TiB used: 833.10 GiB (17.7%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST2000DM001-1ER164 size: 1.82 TiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s 
           serial: Z4Z6SQWW temp: 28 C 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb type: USB vendor: Seagate model: ST3000DM001-9YN166 size: 2.73 TiB serial: Z1F1DM4X 
           ID-3: /dev/sdc type: USB model: Initio HM061GC size: 55.90 GiB serial: 0000000000000000W 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 58.93 GiB used: 35.56 GiB (60.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda6 
           ID-2: /home size: 867.99 GiB used: 365.09 GiB (42.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda11 
           ID-3: swap-1 size: 16.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 50.0 C mobo: 29.8 C gpu: radeon temp: 51 C 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 797 fan-2: 779 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           1: deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ testing main non-free contrib
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security/ testing/updates main contrib non-free
           3: deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ testing-updates main contrib
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:stevenpusser:compiz-reloaded-rebuilds.list 
           1: deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/stevenpusser:/compiz-reloaded-rebuilds/Debian_Testing/ /
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/liquorix.list 
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mdm.list 
Info:      Processes: 248 Uptime: 1d 12h 01m Memory: 15.61 GiB used: 4.75 GiB (30.4%) Init: systemd v: 239 
           runlevel: 5 default: 2 Compilers: gcc: 8.2.0 alt: 6/7/8 clang: 6.0.1-3 Shell: bash v: 4.4.23 
           running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.20 

[None1975]

I am not going to use either Buster nor Sid. If I would like fresh software, I would use Arch, but I choose stability, so I use Debian Stretch.

[Bulkley]

Essentially, Linux is the kernel and a few basic tools, mostly handed down from Unix. As such, there isn't much difference between the variations in Debian versions. They are all pretty solid. The problems usually come from the packages we add on. Desktops and display managers are notorious for mucking things up as are third party apps. One can take Stable, Testing or Unstable, add Xorg and a simple window manager and a few useful apps and run with very few problems.

The old Unix philosophy that a package should do one thing and do it well is still a good idea.

[broelling]

Been running Sid on my main machine since january, and I've only experienced one minor problem in that time (nothing serious). I'm running i3-gaps as wm, so maybe that's one of the reasons I've not seen any real problems, as i3 never gets an update...

[Wheelerof4te]

Yes, users of Window managers rarely have problems. The surface for any major bugs is greatly reduced. Might wanna start using sway, though. It's basically a Wayland ready replacement for i3.

[milomak]

as long as you have apt-listbugs installed, you should never really have many issues with sid.

i've been using for more than 10 years iirc

[sunrat]

You need to watch what packages are proposed to be removed when doing a full-upgrade. If it reports lots of packages are to be removed it will likely hose your system.
A recent example on my KDE Plasma5 system saw KDE Frameworks in transition and at one stage hundreds of packages were proposed to be removed, pretty much all of KDE. Two days later KF5 had finished transition and only a small handful of deprecated packages were removed so it was safe to upgrade.
In cases like this, just wait until it is safe to upgrade!