I see a repo called byzantium with recent files on your repo lists. Is this the new rolling release and is it ready to install? I miss my rolling release ;-).
TIA
Hes this is the repo for the equivalent of Debian Testing. As for itās status @jeremiah would be the best person to reply to that question.
I think it might be ready for experimental testing, yes. Please note, Iāve only done cursory testing but once I added ābyzantiumā to my /etc/apt/sources.list I had well over 1,000 updates. I donāt know how well these updates work with my current amber based system. Caveat emptor!
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I added byzantium too and will update in batches as long as it works.
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Iām thinking that this is not a generic Debian Testing repo, but modified by pureos. Is it also security maintained and is there any attempt to make it at least as usable as the prior rolling releases. I found the rolling release to be very stable.
Because it is based on Debian Testing, it getās Debian Security support. We do add some PureOS specific things, but we try to keep that to a minimum.
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I just upgraded successfully to byzantium. I used synaptic and upgraded the packages in batches between 20 to 100. Only phonon-backend made problems.
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Did you see any change in your encryption setup (if youāre using LUKS)?
I do not use LUKS. When there is an ISO byzanitum, I will setup my laptop again with disk-encryption, When I set up my Laptop for the first time, I did not succeed in encrypting my hard-disk. I do not know the reason why.
also from : https://www.debian.org/releases/bullseye/
Please note that security updates for ātestingā distribution are not yet managed by the security team. Hence, ātestingā does not get security updates in a timely manner. You are encouraged to switch your sources.list entries from testing to buster for the time being if you need security support. See also the entry in the Security Teamās FAQ for the ātestingā distribution.
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Note that this is for Byzantium weāre talking about which is still unofficial.
Hereās more complete information on Debian Testing;
Q: How is security handled for testing?
A: Security for testing benefits from the security efforts of the entire project for unstable. However, there is a minimum two-day migration delay, and sometimes security fixes can be held up by transitions. The Security Team helps to move along those transitions holding back important security uploads, but this is not always possible and delays may occur. Especially in the months after a new stable release, when many new versions are uploaded to unstable, security fixes for testing may lag behind. If you want to have a secure (and stable) server you are strongly encouraged to stay with stable.
To make it clear, Byzantium gets the same security support as testing which receives support for Debian unstable. When Debian releases, testing gets less support because there is so much new work with the new packages. But there is a time delay on unstable packages and we add an additional delay and additional testing.
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I guess I should rephrase my original question, although I think I can infer the answer from the discussion so far.
There are several distros that claim to have a rolling release model. My understanding of this model is that packages are updated as they are released by upstream with very little testing. In the case of system packages, they are released as needed to maintain a working system. The maintainers just keep it rolling along ;-).
So, Iām wondering if purism is using debian testing, once itās become usable, as a rolling release. Thatās not a bad thing, but it would necessitate waiting while the debian devs get testing back on track. After all, the task of packaging a new stable release (around a two year cycle) will continue as the dust settles and they prepare for the .1 update. Wikipedia lists 79 distros that depend on debian including pureos, all with good reason. Iāve used debian testing before as a daily driver and it can be a wild ride. I think it would take substantial effort to mold debian testing into a dependable desktop and maintain it day after day.
If the above is correct then I should wait until pureos officially āreleasesā a rolling release before I make it my everyday os (even if it takes 6-12 months).
from what i understand debian testing (Bullseye) is the middle ground between stable 10 (Buster) and unstable (Sid - likes to cause damage). gotta love the naming convention 
In debian real rolling is SID because sid is always sid. Testing is a āpre-prod stableā and is just a staging ground before itās getting frozen. Rolling release is a mentality, you usually donāt have version-locked dependencies unless you deliver/maintain several versions of the same software (eg python2/3, perl5/6, gtk2/3, etc). So you never have dependency nightmare in the package manager but you may hit some instability during run time instead.
I used debian unstable with siduction and testing for years. A i cannot remember, when I had problems with testing. I updated on a nearly daily manner but always look, if there are conflicts.
with debian testing the most painful are the first couple months after a stable has been released in the wild. after that i think itās pretty ok for people that want the almost bleeding edge to hop in. the recommended way is to upgrade from stable to testing ā¦ i havenāt been able to do a clean install of testing so far ā¦
I havenāt tested them, but install ISOs are available for download.
There are also weekly builds and daily builds image available that allow you to install Debian Testing directly. Some of these are netinstall iso images that require internet connection during installation.
Daily looks as though itās updated throughout the day and they provide a current directory for your convenience. The current current is missing some architectures, like amd64, so I guess that hasnāt been updated yet today.
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There are currently problems with their cdbuilder. The first problem is a kernel mismatch issue thats been ongoing for 2-3 weeks that prevents a clean install and the second is a problem in that it hasnāt been installing cryptsetup-initramfs by default for luks-encrypted systems, but this could be worked around.
I believe that they have a new point release for debian stable in the next week or so and thse problems should be sorted out by then.
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Maybe you could do a transition to Parrot OS (even maybe collaborate with them)? Itās closer to Testing than Kali, less of a pain in the South, and they actually maintain a Desktop Edition, sans the pentest and forensics tools. They do testing of Testing themselves too.
PureOS is a Free Software Foundation approved free software distribution - we do not provide proprietary drivers or source code that cannot be audited by every user.
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