What exactly is the point of rolling release? My pc (well, the cpu) is 15 years old, I dont need bleeding edge updates. Or is it for security ?
What exactly is the point of rolling release? My pc (well, the cpu) is 15 years old, I dont need bleeding edge updates. Or is it for security ?
I have a relatively new PC and eventually I decided at Debian Stable.
Granted, I was already somewhat familiar with APT and Debian based systems, but I also was thinking to choose something different or even a rolling release distribution…
…but at the end of the day, I wanted a stable, useable, tested and functional system that I can’t easily fuck up or can restore if needed, because, well, it won’t be a first time I bork a Linux system with misconfiguring stuff or doing something straight out stupid. But this is irrelevant this case.
I ain’t that super familiar with Linux world, so I deliberately chose the safe way. My hardwares are working fine, I have the drivers that work for everything, games running amazingly well… in the past 2 years I use Linux as main OS, I had no problems not being bleeding edge. I kinda had some minor FOMO when Plasma 6 came out and I was “stuck” on 5 with Debian 12, but didn’t had to wait too much for Debian 13 that has Plasma 6 by default. Though, I reinstalled everything when 13 came out - but only because I wanted some changes on my partition table, I added a new disk and… I wasn’t quite happy how I managed some things with it so I wanted a fresh start - so wasn’t upgrading to 13, but I assume it wouldn’t be a problem either, not too long ago I upgraded my server from Debian 10 to 12, without issues. (From 10 to 11 and to 12. First I tried from 10 to 12, that was a disaster though. However, the documentation explicitly said not to do such thing, so it was on me.)
I was tinkering with my tech stuff all my life, I now really just want a stable, working OS. But it’s just personal preference, I have nothing against rolling release and I can imagine that there are scenarios where rolling release is the better choice.
It is funny. You and I landed in different places but for almost the same reasons.
I use a rolling release because I want my system to work. “Tinkering with my tech stuff” is an activity I want to do when I want and not something I want thrust upon me.
On “stable” distros, I was always working around gaps in the repo or dealing with issues that others had already fixed. And everything I did myself was something I had to maintain and, since I did not really, my systems became less and less stable and more bloated over time.
With a rolling distro, I leave everything to the package manager. When I run my software, most of the issues I read other people complaining about have already been fixed.
And updates on “stable” distros are stressful because they are fragile. On my rolling distro, I can update every day and never have to tinker with anything beyond the update command itself. On the rare occasion that something additional needs to be done, it is localized to a few packages at most and easy to understand.
Anyway, there is no right or wrong as long as it works for you.