As of 10/1/24 3:52 UTC time, Trixie/Debian testing does not have a fix for the severe cupsd security vulnerability that was recently announced, despite Debian Stable and Unstable having a fix.
Debian Testing is intended for testing, and not really for production usage.
So the way Debian Unstable/Testing works is that packages go into unstable/ for a bit, and then are migrated into testing/trixie.
Issues preventing migration:
∙ ∙ Too young, only 3 of 5 days old
Basically, security vulnerabilities are not really a priority in testing, and everything waits for a bit before it updates.
I recently saw some people recommending Trixie for a "debian but not as unstable as sid and newer packages than stable", which is a pretty bad idea. Trixie/testing is not really intended for production use.
If you want newer, but still stable packages from the same repositories, then I recommend (not an exhaustive list, of course).:
Opensuse Leap (Tumbleweed works too but secure boot was borked when I used it)
Fedora
If you are willing to mix and match sources for packages:
Flatpaks
distrobox — run other distros in docker/podman containers and use apps through those
Nix
Can get you newer packages on a more stable distros safely.
Why bother? Backporting security updates or updating packages is work and in case of debian often unpaid. Trixie is for testing new packages and configurations, does not make a ton of sense to keep everything up to date.
it would be nice, but i only expect them to arrive with the regular package updates, i.e. when a new version of cups with the fix in it is released, not an extra quicker fix from the distro maintainer.
Maybe they use OpenSUSE's https://openbuildservice.org/. It can handle multiple distributions. It's like the AUR without touting it to be the second coming of Christ.
Sorry. I meant if you wanted to use only packages from one set of repositories/one distro, for if you were looking for lower level packages like the kernel or desktop environment to be updated.
Yeah, using Testing directly is a bad idea. Instead pick a distro based on Testing - like LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition); or if you really need bleeding edge use Sid instead, but be aware that it was named after the child who breaks toys for a reason.
EDIT - as the comments say LMDE is based on Stable. In my defence when I used it it was still based on Testing. (And it was a rolling release. Yup, LMDE "1" times.)
Maybe it's just been good luck, or maybe I pay enough attention to what apt is going to do and know how to deal with it but I've been daily driving sid for years and am convinced it's more stable than arch based on friends I have that run arch...maybe it's just I'm more experienced but it really doesn't break that much. Obviously ymmv.
I think that it's partially due to Debian's focus on stability. If they call it "stable" it's rock solid; if they call it "unstable" it's still fairly usable, it's just the 0.1% odds that it'll evoke Cthulhu in the process.
In my Sid times I managed to break it, but to be fair it was more like a Frankendebian at that point.
Linux mint debian edition is not based on testijg, but rather on stable*.
This misconception may be caused by the fact that the latest debian stable, has newer packages than many of the older-but-not-ancient ubuntu releases, which were originally based off of debian sid.
*I cannot find a first party source for this, only third party
Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 hits beta with reassuringly little drama. Think Debian 12 plus Mint's polish and a friendlier UX for non-techies
Not sure if anyone else will think it's good enough but I do.
Redhat as a company acts like a parasite on open source, producing a product that is garbage which they then charge money for their support plans. Have an issue with their offering? Fuck you. In addition to that, I absolutely beyond a doubt HATE how they do their filesystem and just willy nilly do whatever the fuck they think is best instead of following community established patterns and designs. Top it off with, who was the first to adopt systems? Redhat.
Stepping away slightly from that, have you dug into ansible's internal before? Actual fucking idiot decisions. Have an issue with tower or AAP (stupid fucking name) good luck getting it fixed. According to their documentation you can have vaulted vars in a cars file with plaintext cars. According to reality, that's causes intermittent failures and has for the past 8 years. There have been SEVERAL GitHub issues submitted but it's still not fixed.
Fuck redhat and fuck their bullshit like fedora. If I wanted to use a garbage distro, I'd at least want to use one that isn't pretending to be decent.