On the command line you can do this command to tell you which version you’re on;
$ cat /etc/os-release
Which on my machine produces;
ID=pureos
NAME=PureOS
PRETTY_NAME=PureOS
VERSION_ID=8.0
VERSION_CODENAME=amber
HOME_URL=“https://pureos.net/”
SUPPORT_URL=“https://puri.sm/faq/#faq-WherecanIfindoutmoreaboutPureOS”
BUG_REPORT_URL=“https://tracker.pureos.net/”
Thanks! Apparently I done goof’d. Somehow I converted the system to Debian.
jon@librem:~$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)”
NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux”
VERSION_ID=“10”
VERSION=“10 (buster)”
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=debian
HOME_URL=“https://www.debian.org/”
SUPPORT_URL=“https://www.debian.org/support”
BUG_REPORT_URL=“https://bugs.debian.org/”
That’s okay of course, it is up to you what software you run! 
If you want to move back to PureOS you ought to be able to by editing your /etc/apt/sources.list either via the command line or via the GNOME Software tool.
Well, that’s what’s weird.
jon@librem:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb https://repo.puri.sm/pureos green main
# deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
I had added the Debian lines to that file to troubleshoot a separate issue, but they’ve been commented out and I still can’t get back onto PureOS (tried sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade).
Change “green” to “amber”, then apt update && apt upgrade.
Just tried that. Some packages got upgraded but my /etc/os-release remains unchanged (still Debian Buster).
Did you update your “base-files”? That is the package that ought to hold the change. Also, do you have any other repos in your sources.list? Or in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/*?
jon@librem:~$ ls /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
jon@librem:~$ sudo apt install base-files
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
base-files is already the newest version (10.3).
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
I’m at a loss.
jon@librem:~$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)”
[…]
Mine says: 10.1pureos5
Can you paste your /etc/apt/sources.list here?
jon@librem:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb https://repo.puri.sm/pureos amber main
# deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster main contrib non-free
Please add;
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos/ amber-updates main
deb https://repo.pureos.net/pureos/ amber-security mainThanks for your help. I added those lines.
jon@librem:~$ for i in clean update upgrade; do sudo apt $i; done
I got quite a few new/upgraded packages, but my /etc/os-release is still the Debian Buster stuff.
I didn’t mean to derail this thread with my technical issue, and it’s really not much of an issue. I’m fairly certain I won’t be missing any major critical OS security patches with this setup, so I suppose it’s fine. Just strange.
Or you could use Parrot for the rolling base. They have “Home” oriented versions, but it is rolling, and hardened.
As I understand currently PureOS is based on Debian Testing while LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is based on Debian Stable. That’s interesting. I’m curios what are the pros and cons for each approach.
I’m sorry I haven’t read through the 101-post thread.
I think this discussion (the question as originally posed) is no longer relevant in the sense that Purism now offers both. Period.
My 2c for the pros and cons (cross-post):
I myself go for stable. Just gimme the bug fixes. The downside is that when I do finally choose to do a version upgrade, there is much more to download, it all takes a long time, and all the breakages and incompatible changes happen at once. So I plan the version upgrade for a time when I can afford to devote a half day to a day to messing around. (NB: This is Ubuntu not PureOS but it all comes from Debian.)
Note the warning that the Byzantium ISO is “experimental”. That was 5 days ago. I don’t know whether that would have changed in the last 5 days. If not then the safe approach is to take an Amber ISO, let that fully install itself, and then change over from Amber to Byzantium (as per the first link). If this is a crash test dummy computer then just go ahead and use the Byzantium ISO regardless.
Note that an ISO, any ISO, is really only relevant for a new install. If this is an existing PureOS install then just change over from Amber to Byzantium (as per the first link).
The first link does not say it explicitly but I believe you will want to comment out Amber when adding Byzantium.
My claim comes from Wikipedia which may be fairly outdated.
And now you say Amber, the stable version (meaning it’s based on Debian Stable?) is the one long-standing version of PureOS. I’m confused.
The Wikipedia article provides a citation back to a blog post from Purism. However that post appears to be talking about “green”. So, yes, not incorrect at the time it was written but out of date.