Staying with Debian 11

[Diesel330]

I'm not planning to upgrade to Debian 12 for the near future, my computer working fine and I don't like the hassle of a clean installation. Can I safely use Debian 11 for another 1-2 years?

[4D696B65]

June 2026
https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

[Fossy]

June 2026
https://wiki.debian.org/LTS

Take it for granted ... considering all my Debian installations are of the Clean install / Single Boot type and considering all my current hardware works perfectly to all intents and purposes I have no need for a new Debian release for the time being .

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[reinob]

[...] I don't like the hassle of a clean installation. [...]

You don't need to do a clean installation. You can just upgrade, which (if you read the release notes) works pretty well.

[Diesel330]

You don't need to do a clean installation. You can just upgrade, which (if you read the release notes) works pretty well.

Yes, I'm aware but still, if the OS stays updated I will probably keep 11 for another year

[kent_dorfman766]

Agreed. updating for the sake of upgrading is bad juju.

I have a whole list of reasons why newer is not necessarily better.

I'm gonna hold onto 11 for as long as I can. Am gonna stretch it till at least 2026...longer if I can get away with it.

[Bulkley]

I'm still running Debian 10 and will continue to do so.

[kalle123]

Debian 11 on a 240 GB SSD and my DATA on a 480 GB SSD here. Have Debian Testing on a second 240 GB SSD, which can be added in a swapping bay to my computer. Booting, I can select between Debian 11 or Testing. In future, when totally convinced that all of my applications work on Debian 12, I'll start thinking about mounting that SSD inside the machine and put the Debian 11 SSD aside. But no hurry in doing so .....

[None1975]

I'm still running Debian 10 and will continue to do so.

And i still running Debian 3 and will continue to do so

[Fossy]

I'm still running Debian 10 and will continue to do so.

And i still running Debian 3 and will continue to do so

giving a donkey its way is half its food

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[None1975]

giving a donkey its way is half its food

You are very witty. But I think the situation here is simple. The circus left and the clown stayed.

[sdibaja]

I see Debian 10 is good until June 30th, 2024
Good to know... My wife uses D10 and I hate up mess with her system, she wants it to be Identical.
I will set aside some time in the next twelve months to do it.

I personally like my other systems to have all the new shiny stuff... she doesn't care at all.

[Fossy]

I see Debian 10 is good until June 30th, 2024
Good to know... My wife uses D10 and I hate up mess with her system, she wants it to be Identical.
I will set aside some time in the next twelve months to do it.
I personally like my other systems to have all the new shiny stuff... she doesn't care at all.

rather confusing, don't you agree ? ... https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOldStable :
Q) Why oldstable ?
A.1) In a large organisation, it can take a while to plan, test and upgrade all computers.
A.2) Some Debian based custom distribution's stable version can be based on oldstable. Having oldstable is convenient for them too.
Q) When is it released ?
The old-stable is "created" 1 just before a new stable is released.
Q) How long will security updates be provided?
The security team tries to support a stable distribution for about one year after the next stable distribution has been released, except when another stable distribution is released within this year. It is not possible to support three distributions; supporting two simultaneously is already difficult enough. source: Debian Security FAQ

[mazda1]

the choice I'll soon have to do is quite similar , but nevertheless a little bit different .

The kernels 5.10.xxx are a problem for my keyboard which sometimes freezes . Debian 10 was perfect . I tried kernel 6.0.xx from bullseye-backports during 2 months : it worked without a glitch . I don't know what is best :

* keeping Debian 11 and use a kernel from bookworm-backports
* upgrading to Debian 12 when it is released . I already tested bookworm which I installed on an external ssd and everything works fine .

The former would be the easiest way but the latter would be 100% Debian stable and might perhaps be more secure and more reliable than a mix between Debian 11 and bookworm . Is it worth upgrading to Debian 12 ?

[sdibaja]

yes, very confusing.

Excellent point(s).
fortunately my wife does not use her laptop much, she mostly uses her smartphone (I am forbidden to touch it)

I do plan to upsize her ssd, I have the candidate on my desk.
I suppose I should clone her existing ssd onto it and start working on her upgrade... when it's ready I can just swap drives and she will Probably not notice.

[BBQdave]

I'm gonna hold onto 11 for as long as I can. Am gonna stretch it till at least 2026...longer if I can get away with it.

A tough choice I am excited to check out Debian 12, but Debian 11 is sooooo nice

Leaning toward hanging on to Debian 11

[Bulkley]

When the shiny new stuff shows up I test it in virtual. It's not surprising that much of the new stuff loses its shine when tested.

[el_koraco]

Be aware that the font rendering in Debian 12 is so much better than in Debian 11 that this alone warrants an upgrade.

[BBQdave]

Be aware that the font rendering in Debian 12 is so much better than in Debian 11 that this alone warrants an upgrade.

Now I'm tempted to load Debian 12 on release day We'll see if I can resist the new!

[idmbe]

I'm not planning to upgrade to Debian 12 for the near future, my computer working fine and I don't like the hassle of a clean installation. Can I safely use Debian 11 for another 1-2 years?

+1

I installed 12 RC1 32bit and tested for month on old pc i have it with 2gb ram ddr2 .. it's pretty good and i never find issues with it, But i prefer to stay with 11 on my primary pc until bring new pc