* T mlist4suntong@yahoo.com [20060628 20:55]:
I'd like to know the philosophy behind the grml releases. I used to use Debian testing, but recently revert to stable because the vulnerability of Debian testing. So you know I'm always on the cautions side. I know Knopsis, Ubunto does a lot of QA testing before the release. How about grml? Seems to me that grml pick its release packages only based on the cut off date. How about the problems/errors that inherited from the packages of the cut off date? Can't imaging so many tools will have one perfect day to be error free. Do you revert several versions back on those packages that have problems? In short, Debian unstable always has the potential to be unstable. What's the mechanism in place for grml to avoid it?
I'm running several quality checks. I run daily updates and report problems to the Debian Bug Tracking System (BTS).
I also maintain an "upgrading webpage" in the grml-wiki:
http://wiki.grml.org/doku.php?id=upgrading
The site is up2date at least from release to release. Unstable does not mean that the software has to be unstable but that the package pool is the unstable part of it. So the uncomfortable stuff is the package upgrades, not the software itself. ;)
Therefore: before grml 0.8 will be available I'll make a full upgrade from a grml 0.7 system and check what's failing. If something is failing I'll report it to the BTS. If it isn't fixed when next grml version is coming I do provide a working package/instructions how to solve it. To upgrade all relevant grml-packages a virtual package named 'grml' exists. Upgrading all grml related stuff from one release to the next one is possible therefore via running:
# apt-get update ; apt-get install grml
It won't touch the installed kernel and as we do maintain the grml-packages on our own (and test them before they are going into a public release) this upgrade process can be considered as stable.
Between the stable release I provide several develreleases to grml developers and betatesters (see http://grml.org/beta-tester/ for details). And of course I (and several grml developers and users) use grml at work, at home,...
regards, -mika-