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user136984

07:13

@FaheemMitha Yes, I guess that there will be hardware issue and some users also obviously can't cope with it. But I mean if you've checked that you're hardware and graphics cards (etc.) are fine and compatible with it and you've actually chosen to use it yourself then it's a bit strange if you keep just breaking your system as some IT people that I know do.

user136984

I don't understand what people are doing to it when they say they have to reinstall it everyday.

user136984

I got warned by proper IT people that it was very unstable...

user136984

But it's not, I think it's just them! :D

user136984

I mean, it obviously depends upon what you do and what you install, but that's also what I mean. Generally the software I install is also quite normal and stable for a programmer.

Michael Homer

If you don't update for a while you can end up stuck, and if you do update things will occasionally break a little.

user136984

07:30

I only really get about 2 weeks out of date (when I'm just away from my computer for a little bit), but so far nothing has actually happened because of it. Maybe just luck, or how old does it have to get?

Stephen Kitt

@ParanoidPanda it very much depends on what people mean by “stable”

Debian stable isn’t called stable because it works well

it’s called stable because its APIs and ABIs don’t change

which is what IT people care about

because it means you can build something on top of it without fear of churn

in terms of working well, as in, not crashing, I think Fedora, Arch & co can be just as stable

but any upgrade is a source of risk

user136984

They somehow were managing to actually corrupt and destroy every single installation. I don't know how or what they were doing.

Stephen Kitt

regardless of the system

@ParanoidPanda right, that does suggest they’re doing something wrong ;-)

user136984

Yes, sometimes things do go quite wrong with an update, but they are generally soon to fix it so it's ok.

Stephen Kitt

@ParanoidPanda it depends how vital it is for you to use your system right now

(and then I guess that means don’t update)

that’s really what it boils down to: rolling systems are nice for the user (at least, for developers)

but they’re hard to support

hence IT people’s reluctance

user136984

07:36

If you exersize a reasonable amount of caution though and in terms of what you install as well, then I think that you can at least mostly avoid problems.