> When I read stuff like this I can't help but wonder how anything ever even gets done on this project.
Many years ago, I posted that stable was too old. All the Debian users were quick to tell me to run testing, that it wasn't a bad experience in spite of the name. Well, after converting all my machines to Debian, a package that was critical to my work was broken and I was not at all impressed with the handling of the situation, so I moved on. I can definitely see something like the story in the article playing out.
I moved on from Debian some 9-10 years ago and I haven't regretted it once. Many sysadmin acquaintances and former colleagues of mine complained that upgrading Debian is often like rolling a dice (yes, even the stable and thus fairly old variant). An innocent "apt-get upgrade" moves configuration files and/or expectations where they are, or, what's even worse, changes the config files and silently moves the previous ones to another file. This is sensible but obviously a 99% automated process run on a fleet of servers cannot detect this and those acquaintances of mine regularly had to fight with the consequences. Some even resigned when management refused to let them move to another distro. Other were more lucky and managed to move.
I am not a sysadmin and very far from an expert so my take on this is entirely anecdotal and likely partially wrong.
But ever since I moved to Manjaro (after briefly trying Arch and deciding that I don't want to build my own house brick by brick) I've only had 1-2 problems ever and they were fixed literally the day after with the next system-wide update command. The one and only exception is the last problem I had: namely an OpenSSH upgrade hard-deprecated a few signing algorithms so I was unable to SSH into my servers. And that was solved with half a minute of search on ManjaroForum. Smooth sailing.
For all the BS surrounding the "systemd vs. whatever-else-the-other-thing-was", I found the former made my life as a mid-tier Linux user and home-grown server admin much easier, too.
>or, what's even worse, changes the config files and silently moves the previous ones to another file.
I run Debian on my servers because I like not having to wrestle with Yast2 or deal with the constant churn for churn's sake of certain RPM-based distros.
The above quote hasn't really been a thing since at least Debian 8, and possibly 7. Certainly when it came time to upgrade to 11, if package configs were being overwritten I was presented with a diff and asked what I wanted to do.
My Debian 10 box updated last week and now its down. Its probably just a config file has changed but no mail for me till I get it fixed. Centos never had this issue I wish it was still a thing so I dont have to use Debian
> For all the BS surrounding the "systemd vs. whatever-else-the-other-thing-was", I found the former made my life as a mid-tier Linux user and home-grown server admin much easier, too.
Yeah, I'm sympathetic to some of the anti-systemd stuff, but I've found writing systemd units so much easier and more reliable than upstart or sysv init scripts. And sd_notify is great.
I moved to Debian (almost 20 years ago) because the upgrade was the _least disruptive_.
YMMV, Debian isn't for everyone, but it's been rock solid for me with very few exceptions, far fewer than I've seen from other folks with other distributions.
Oh yeah, and I do that 99% of the time. Only if somebody asks or if I want to make a point on HN.
As time goes by (I am 41) I really find it less and less appealing to argue with people, on HN included. People can tell you "just do X, you won't regret it!" or "use Y, most of your problems will go away" but you are there happily doing A and using B and they serve you perfectly.
So if I am asked about what would I recommend as best practices, I always say: "if you have needs X, Y and Z, then using A and B is perfect".
Just saying "use Arch, it's best Linux eva duuuuude" is of course unproductive.
Many years ago, I posted that stable was too old. All the Debian users were quick to tell me to run testing, that it wasn't a bad experience in spite of the name. Well, after converting all my machines to Debian, a package that was critical to my work was broken and I was not at all impressed with the handling of the situation, so I moved on. I can definitely see something like the story in the article playing out.