I'm going to get a new (used) laptop soon. Which Debian release should I install at this stage of the release cycle, Jessie or Stretch? My current laptop runs Wheezy.
(I want as few bugs as possible, but also dislike the idea of having to upgrade in the near future.)
Also, is Xfce still the lightweight desktop of choice?
@stefanieschulte I've been using Debian testing (currently "stretch") for a while without any issues. There are a few tools (like apt-listbugs) that can help avoid any critical bugs, but that happens rarely. It's very usable.
If you absolutely need stability, don't require fresh packages and can live with a painless upgrade every now and then, stable is probably the way to go.
@nikolap Thank you! When I installed Wheezy in summer 2013 (still a relative Linux newbie at the time), it had been stable for a few months. That was good timing, I believe, but I've avoided upgrading it ever since. Today, many Wheezy packages seem out of date (including browsers), and the end of Long Term Support looms.
I might give Stretch a try...
@manicphase @nikolap This is why I consider installing Stretch straight away. It's going to become stable soon, and long term support is scheduled until 2022. It would probably "outlive" my already old hardware. This might allow me to avoid upgrading.
On the other hand, I have heard less bad things about Debian upgrades than about Ubuntu ones.
Stefanie Schulte
Nikola Plejić
manicphase