[scribus] Newbie Mac User

[Peter Nermander]

>   That's good to hear. I do the same with my Macs. However, I'm
> finding more and more that I *have* to upgrade because I want to
> install some new piece of software that only supports the current and
> last current version of the OS. I generally get around this by using
> other software, but I have encountered times when this was not
> possible. That's what forced me up to Mac OS X five years ago.

One important thing about Debian is that an upgrade is NOT the same as
a "new install". Some distros require the you do a fresh install when
you upgrade, but Debian don't. (Not sure about Ubuntu.)

Normally on a Debian system you once in a while do "aptitude update"
followed by "aptitude upgrade". The all installed applications
automatically become upgraded with security fixes etc.

When a new release of Debian is issued you will more or less get a
fully automatic upgrade. That is part of the strict rules for Debian
packages: The package SHALL handle upgrades in a "good" way. If a
package doesn't, it's not allowed into stable.

Some people consider that a drawback of Debian, that "policy
violations" are considered release critical, but I think it's a
strength because I know that upgrades will work smoothly as long as I
use "true" Debian packages (i.e. from the Debian main archive).

/Peter