I should probably switch back to Debian. I switched to Ubuntu back in the day because it was Debian + more stuff. Now it's Debian + more stuff I don't want.
The whole Linux ecosystem is like trying to work with mixed windows 95 and NT environments was in 1998 now as far as portability goes. Mostly it works, but sometimes it really screws you hard.
- Run debian stable to get a solid base system
- When you want the latest version of some software and need it "on the host" for some reason: use the official repositories / auto-updating stuff (e.g.: docker, firefox, vscode, virtualbox).
- Everything you can run on docker ... just do it. Even cli utilities are usually fine (for instance I run latex from within docker, through an alias that mounts the current folder as a volume).
- When you cannot run something on docker, consider lxc.
- As a last resort, turn to kvm machines. Hint: vscode-remote works beautifully to work inside the VM when you must resort to this. I know it is not free, but I said pragmatic ;)
One thing that is a pain is that testing isn't covered by the Debian Security Team, and sometimes gets fixes a week or so after stable does, so you do need to be more proactive about security issues.
Also including VScode and remote-ssh :)
this is absolutely not true. All packages that are available in Debian have a release process, and there is a test bed. there is also the dh_auto_test part of debhelper which becomes increasingly relevant for accepting packages into the debian release process. So if anything the opposite of your claim is true.
I have been running Debian sid for many years for various scenarios and not once had an issue with stability or that I got bitten by a bug.
In production I want stable at all costs. For anything in between building from source is always an OK compromise.
The premise that Debian sid has poor quality packages is a blanket statement that is wrong.
which is, you know, where most of the useful stuff is in 2020
what is the actual issue? inability to compile things from source or not knowing that you can install to /usr/local/bin or $HOME/bin etc?
of course everything is either on gihub or gitlab in 2020. the argument that the majority of software that is useful isn't actually available as deb package is false. useful to who? based on what arguments?
To clarify your edit, I am mostly concerned that I want to pull in another deb repo or something so when I do an apt update I get a full set of updates, not the distribution packages and a manual compile job to argue with.
At least with Ubuntu/Debian there is documentation, and the software feels 'complete' - the CentOS systems I work on feel like working/living in a half finished house by comparison.
Not as easy upgrade steps and lack of LXD on Debian is pushing me away from it.