This new database is to provide screenshots (duh!) of all the applications in their packages repository. Before installing you will now be able to see how an application will look before you actually install it. Even more impressive (to me at least), is that they allow anyone to upload screens, which of course provides a lot better view of a possible application-look.

Personally, I’m super-enthusiastic about this. I can’t seem to stop browsing all the screens, and while I’m currently running Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex at home myself, this makes me want to migrate to pure Debian (and I think I will since Intrepid has been kind of troublesome lately ).

As usual, Debian has done a stellar job on this one, and this is definetely worth checking out!

Developer Alexander Reichle-Schmehl states on his blog that this is due to too many release-critical bugs. Translated to normal english, this just means there’s too many things not working properly just yet.

Now this is not new, and it’s one of the reasons why I’m such a huge Debian addict. Releases of this distro have historically been slow, and though this means you don’t get all the newest goodies right away, it does guarantee you a rock-solid, stable system. However, those who can’t wait for these new toys do not have to worry, as Alexander stays optimistic and invites the whole community to help out.

For the normal users, this means that if you are currently using the Etch release, you should already make the necessary modifications to your system, upgrade to Lenny, and check if everything is working properly. Here’s where my concern comes in.

I mean, it’s all nice, but if you are maintaining a server running Etch, the last thing you want to do is upset your users and start upgrading to something that even the developers think is buggy. OK, I didn’t take a good look yet at what exactly is having issues, but still, this whole thing seems fishy to me at best.

I don’t think a lot of people will be eager to jump at this kind of thing. Maybe if you have a development server running that you can ticker with, yeah … but for us poor my-machine-needs-to-stay-stable admins it’s just not do-able. Maybe if they proposed a way where you could upgrade a single application/service at a time, without jeopardizing your whole system, it would be more successful.

To conclude, this admin here (meaning me ), will watch this from a distance, and I advise all of you to do the same. Of course, the decision remains up to you. If you do decide to take the jump, good luck, and maybe let me know how it went .