[Users] On which Linux distro is Claws Mail best supported?

[J.D. Ackle]

On Thu, 03 Oct 2013 22:03:48 +0200
vitsen at gmx.com wrote:

> I am a bit worried, as I have read on some posts that there are significant bugs in Debian (if I remember correctly). So, does this mean that such bugs are also present on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian? Should I avoid all Debian/Ubuntu-based distros?

As nobody else actually adressed this, I will have to frankly say that there is a lot of bugs in Debian is a really odd one! Then again, it would depend on which specific Debian flavour you are running. Here are the three Debian flavours you can run:

Debian Stable: You can safelly say Debian stable has less bugs in it than about 99% (or more!) of the other distros in the planet. It is actually a sort of common knowledge that Debian Stable is THE most stable GNU/Linux distribution out there.
It is also often considered outdated - that's because very thorough testing is required on the software included in Debian Testing, and that takes time... So you'll likely not have "the latest and greatest" in Stable.
If I'm not mistaken, CentOS (an enterprise Linux distro) is based on this Debian release.

Debian Testing: This is the release that will become the next Debian Stable. It takes two years for a Testing release to become the next Stable (hence the Stable/Testing cycle is six months longer than Ubuntu's LTS (Long Term Support) releases, the most stable Ubuntu releases). There is also a several months "freeze" (I don't remember how many) at the end of a Testing release where no software is added nor upgraded - it's only for bugfixing - the result will be a really stable, as bug-free as possible upcoming Stable release.
Again, if not mistaken, this is the release Ubuntu and its derivatives is based on.

Debian Unstable (aka Debian Sid): Now running this one is asking for trouble... Several people run this to have "the latest and greatest" not really understanding it's purpose is not at all to offer the latest and greatest, it's rather basically meant as a playground for developpers to sort of streess-test their applications against present and future possible conflicts and whatnot.

Do note that Debian itself states (paraphrase from memory): "You should understand that Debian's objective is to produce Stable". Testing and Unstable are mere means to achieve that objective.

So... what Debian release/flavour were the people who said Debian had many bugs talking about?...

> Since my operating system should be able to run on a low-powered netbook, I was thinking of something like Lubuntu (which is also based on Ubuntu).
> What do you suggest?
Like others have said, it should work flawlessly on most if not all Linux distributions with a graphical environment (there are Linux distros with no graphical environments but I don't think you're considering those ones...).

But you might care about how often the Claws-Mail package is updated in that distribution.
Ubuntu LTS (dating back from 2012) uses Claws 0.8. But yuo can go to Claws Mail's site to get the repository to get updates for Ubuntu LTS directly from teh Claws Mail. The latest in is for LTS is 0.9.1.
The old Debian Stable also used the 0.8 version of Claws. But I got the 0.9.2 from Debian Stable *Backports*. This one came from the then Testing release which is the current Stable, so... ;-)

Cheers!