So when is Etch getting stable?

[Daan]

It was supposed to be in December, and it's already March...

[craigevil]

Debian will only release when the release-critical bugs are gone.
Etch will release when it is ready.Sooner If You Help. How? http://qa.debian.org http://wiki.debian.org/BSP

Unofficial RC-Bugs Count
http://bts.turmzimmer.net/details.php

It is more than "stable" enough for desktop use as it is. So if you are waiting for it to release before installing it, don't.

Release Notes for Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 ("etch"), Intel x86
http://www.debian.org/releases/testi....html#contents
Debian GNU/Linux Installation Guide
http://www.debian.org/releases/testing/i386/

[karyoker]

From all the things Ive read on the web and my friends cant even get winamp to work for shows on vista etch is a whole lot more stable than vista.. A roxbox (karaoke ) owner barely crippled through a show last night and after rebooting this morn winamp wont even work If I had it here would dual boot and install etch and have him back on the road. We are talking $250-$500 a show... When I switched to XP I had problems with system resources and since then have switched to etch , never will vista so this thread cracks me up!!!!!!

[Daan]

Thanks for your replies. I use Etch, both at home and at work, with applications like Matlab, Mathematica, g++ and OpenOffice and it works very well in general, especially at my HP/Compaq at work. However, at my home PC I sometimes have trouble. Recently, after an upgrade, the GRUB menu didn't work anymore (see my recent thread in this forum). Also, I notice that with each fresh install, things look different (Etch at my home PC looks different from Etch my work PC). So I wondered when its going to be "stable", so that I can choose a moment for a fresh install. (I know it's not necessary, but for me it's the easiest way to get things better.)

I will look at the links you supplied and see if I can contribute.

[jens]

Also, I notice that with each fresh install, things look different (Etch at my home PC looks different from Etch my work PC).

Those are just the daily snapshots(only noticeable if you install the full DE-environment from the installer). While the whole distro is already complete, the installer still changes from day to day. None of this should matter though, just pick the look you like. Etch is IMHO already the best distro out there (it makes fake-Debian-Ubuntu look like a kiddy toy)

PS: Most of the delay was cause of the already dumped dunc-tank (http://www.dunc-tank.org/).

[karyoker]

As a newbie about 4 months ago I went thru the learning curve and installed several distros...sarge ubuntu pclinux knoppix slax live musix... I am an expert installer....etch was the first one I installed and after trying all the rest I went back to etch been updating and using it since...

Part of the learning curve was emulating windows programs for our business still has some windows stuff we rely on and make money with.. For a digital audio workstation vista is even worse yet as far as efficiency is concerned and more and more audio engineers will be shifting to linux...