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Comment by tfolbrecht | Hacker News Reader

I think running a long term support distro is silly for non critical devices.

I personally use Debian Testing, maybe take this chance to try it? I've never had a stability issue across the 4 different devices I use.

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How is it silly? I've used Debian Stable and Ubuntu LTS on desktops for many years. I've always had the latest versions of all the apps I use thanks to backports, repos managed by upstream developers (e.g., PPAs) and occasionally installing software from source. (Disclosure: I don't use GNOME, KDE or any other DE, which can be problematic to keep updated.)

Also, many upstream developers who provide packages for Debian and Ubuntu (e.g., PostgreSQL[1][2] and Spotify[3]) only test their software on Debian Stable and Ubuntu LTS.

Lastly, Debian Testing has the worst security update speed and should not be preferred if security is a concern.[4]

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/debian/

[2] https://www.postgresql.org/download/linux/ubuntu/

[3] https://www.spotify.com/us/download/linux/

[4] https://wiki.debian.org/DebianTesting

I'm under the impression OP is asking about a distro for their laptop or desktop.

My question to you is, why use an old kernel + packages when you could have newish ones with a reasonable degree of trust? Is avoiding the extremely rare bug worth it?

re:PPAs I prefer my machines packages to be downloaded from trusted sources. The distro developer package vetting and accountability adds value.

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