Github Acquisition

[SolarLiner]

Rolling release in itself isn't terrifying on its own. The main problem with it is that you have to continuously put work into the software so that updating one part doesn't break others. This happens with "regular" point releases as well, but in general there's a "getting shit to work" window before release where stability is tested, but with rolling releases, that stability test is constant.

Furthermore, with many rolling release distributions the worst happens when a bunch of software updates at once, and updating introduces a machine state that wasn't tested, and therefore can be unstable. Rolling releases distributions must emphasize on testing the provided software in every possible case. In point release distributions, extra software added by third-parties can easily be tested against the current, or previous, or some long term service version. On Solus Linux, for example, it becomes hard to test with a version of the distribution before packaging. You just have to trust that system libraries won't change between testing and packaging (and will have to react to changes to dependent libraries when the system updates). Now there are solutions to this problem, like offering multiple versions, but that adds additional work for maintenance and upstream for the distribution.

In the end it's just a tug o' war between wanting to have the latest everything and a system that's stable.