From time to time, I see someone remark that Ubuntu uses packages from Debian unstable, and that they don’t think this is a very good idea. I would like to explain why we do this and how it works, and hope that this will enable a less one-sided view of the subject.

Debian is well known and regarded as a product, the Debian system itself. In addition to this end product, the Debian community produces a variety of useful by-products. One of the most celebrated is Debian “unstable”, which despite its unglamorous name is an incredible achievement. It represents the collective work of a vast number of developers, who package and maintain essentially all of the free software available.

Put simply, Debian unstable provides immediate access to anything you could want from the free software world. It’s all there, updated daily with the latest and greatest releases. As if that weren’t great enough, the components are continuously integrated, so that problems become evident right away and can be fixed quickly.

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