> a rolling release which only pauses for a bit once every two years during the freeze for the stable releases
People say this a lot but I disagree. Debian Sid is not a rolling release.
Debian is a project that produces releases of Debian GNU/Linux. Those releases are then supported for many years. As a development tool for the production of those stable releases, Debian also has 'testing', 'unstable', and 'experimental'.
The key difference is that Sid is not a product for Debian. Debian makes no claim to support Sid. Occasionally it breaks, and that's just part of using it, too bad.
In contrast, for a true rolling release distribution like Arch, the rolling release is the product. It's not just a tool the distribution uses for the production of something else - indeed, Arch has no stable releases.
I don't say this as a criticism of Debian - to the contrary, I have used both distributions quite a bit. I just think it's a mistake to tell people Sid is rolling release. If you want a rolling release distribution, use Arch. Use Sid if you're a Debian developer and need to...otherwise I honestly can't find much of a reason to use Sid. When I'm on Debian and need to get newer packages, there are other ways to do this that don't involve turning your whole system over to the churn of constant package updates (e.g. backports.)
I dunno, I get that there's a distinction between what the product officially supports and doesn't, but if something breaks in sid, I would expect them to still want to fix it because that's the thing that will eventually become a release. It's just theoretically more likely to break in the first place because it is after all the unstable channel.
> there are other ways to do this that don't involve turning your whole system over to the churn of constant package updates
I mean, that's no different than Arch or any other rolling release distribution.
No, there is no way to have a stable system in Arch. They don’t recommend installing any new packages unless your entire system is up to date. There is also no stable way to get just security updates while leaving the rest of the system stable.
People say this a lot but I disagree. Debian Sid is not a rolling release.
Debian is a project that produces releases of Debian GNU/Linux. Those releases are then supported for many years. As a development tool for the production of those stable releases, Debian also has 'testing', 'unstable', and 'experimental'.
The key difference is that Sid is not a product for Debian. Debian makes no claim to support Sid. Occasionally it breaks, and that's just part of using it, too bad.
In contrast, for a true rolling release distribution like Arch, the rolling release is the product. It's not just a tool the distribution uses for the production of something else - indeed, Arch has no stable releases.
I don't say this as a criticism of Debian - to the contrary, I have used both distributions quite a bit. I just think it's a mistake to tell people Sid is rolling release. If you want a rolling release distribution, use Arch. Use Sid if you're a Debian developer and need to...otherwise I honestly can't find much of a reason to use Sid. When I'm on Debian and need to get newer packages, there are other ways to do this that don't involve turning your whole system over to the churn of constant package updates (e.g. backports.)