How "out of date" is Debian really? - eviltoast

I hear that a lot but, how bad is it really? Does it affect you (if you use Debian)? Aren’t there ways to install newer versions of most things that actually matter?

  • cakeistheanswer@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 months ago

    This is always a spectrum from how long it was since the last Debian stable release. So about 2 years max.

    Modern release cadences make it crazy anywhere but Debian, but security patches are very timely. If you’re dealing with newer features, driver support or java/npm packages you’re probably also outside the typical defaults, but there’s generally some people working to keep the common ones up to date.

    Still not my preferred way to handle updates and in some cases… kind of abusive to the maintainers who constantly haVE to deal with bug reports from “out of date” Debian users. The xscreensaver maintainer has some choice words. But it works, has for years with no sign of slowing.