Debian 6.0

Debian 6.0 "squeeze" was released today. This is both good news and bad news for those of us who run Debian "sid", and don't really care about the release.

It's good news because the flow of new software will return to normal. The flow slows to a trickle as the release gets closer, which is kind of annoying if you happen to be waiting for certain software. In my case, this would be the 2.6.38 kernel and the latest x.org radeon driver, which together are supposed to bring a significant improvement in performance to several AMD chipsets.

It's bad news because the first week after the release, the flow turns into a flood. This is usually when "sid" is most unstable and you really have to keep your wits about you, otherwise you can easily end up with a broken system. Thankfully, I've been through this many times before, so I'm quite used to it. Strangely, "testing" is often less stable than "sid" during this time.

The code name for the next Debian release is "wheezy", and no there is no release date for that. Debian doesn't work that way. ^_^