I'm aware of Debian's reputation for not having the most up-to-date software in its repository but have just noticed that Thunderbird is on its current version. Which makes me ask:

When does Debian update a package? And how does it decide when to?

I'm particularly interested in when it will make available the upcoming major release of GIMP to 3.0.

  • BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
    ·
    1 day ago

    When does Debian update a package? And how does it decide when to?

    These both can be answered in depth at Debian's releases page, but the short answer is:

    Debian developers work in a repo called "unstable" or "sid," and you can get those packages if you so desire. They will be the most up to date, but also the most likely to introduce breaking changes.

    When the devs decide these packages are "stable enough," (breaking changes are highly unlikely) they get moved into "testing" (the release candidate repo) where users can do QA for the community. Testing is the repo for the next version of debian.

    When the release cycle hits the ~1.5 year mark, debian maintainers introduce a series of incremental "freezes," whereby new versions of packages will slowly stop being accepted into the testing repo. You can see a table that explains each freeze milestone for Trixie (Debian 13) here.

    After all the freezes have gone into effect, Debian migrates the current Testing version (currently Trixie, Debian 13) into the new Stable, and downgrades the current stable version to old-stable. Then the cycle begins again

    As for upgrades to packages in the stable/old-stable repos: see the other comments here. The gist is that they will not accept any changes other than security patches and minor bug fixes, except for business critical software that cannot just be patched (e.g. firefox).

  • N0x0n@lemmy.ml
    ·
    23 hours ago

    Some people will probably disagree with me but I consider Debian stable as a server distribution not as a daily drive system.

    Debian testing is probably the better choice if you want to daily drive Debian or consider or more up to date distro. If you're relatively new to GNU/Linux, don't bother with bleeding edge distros or exotics ones like Arch, EndeavourOS, Gentoo, NixOS...

    If you find your way to distrowatch.com you will see EndeavourOS very high in the rankings, but it's a rolling release distribution. While it's easier to maintain/install than Arch, it has a learning curve and needs regular attention and reading the docs/forum.

    I have seen a lot of people recommend the following:

    • Linux mint
    • Pop! OS
    • Fedora
    • OpenSUSE
  • Eugenia@lemmy.ml
    ·
    1 day ago

    Gimp 3 is scheduled to be released in May, around the time that Debian 13 is about to come out. Given that Gimp is never on time, and that Debian will only include stable software in their repo, you won't see Gimp 3.x on Debian for another 2.5 years (the next major release).

    However, don't fret. There's a way to run Gimp 3, even now, without overwriting the 2.10.x version of Gimp that comes with Debian: https://github.com/ivan-hc/GIMP-appimage/releases That's how I run gimp 3 on my Debian too, I just download the 3.0-rc1 .appimage file, make it executable, and it's up and running.

    • ManiacDriver@lemm.ee
      ·
      1 day ago

      Flatpack is one of the official ways to install the RC:

      If you have Flatpack on your system, go to https://www.gimp.org/downloads/devel/ and click the GNU/Linux option, there will be a button to install it.

      If the button doesn’t work, the page says:

      Flatpak additional instructions

      If the link above doesn't open your software installer, install with following command:

      flatpak install --user https://flathub.org/beta-repo/appstream/org.gimp.GIMP.flatpakref

      Run with following command line:

      flatpak run org.gimp.GIMP//beta

      To update:

      flatpak update

      Note: If you installed both the stable and beta repositories, the desktop (menus, etc.) will see only one version at a time. To make sure your desktop sees the development version, run this command:

      flatpak make-current --user org.gimp.GIMP beta

      Or respectively to restore the stable version as the visible GIMP application:

      flatpak make-current --user org.gimp.GIMP stable

      You may also create shortcuts running specifically one of the other version.

  • beleza pura@lemmy.eco.br
    ·
    1 day ago

    it usually updates most packages when a new patch version is released (eg 2.3.1 -> 2.3.2). besides that, they will not update packages to new releases that add features

    there are some special cases where it might choose to update more often. debian uses firefox esr by default, but it will update to a newer esr version no matter what, for security reasons. the same must be true for thunderbird.