should sources.list have this?

[Gaccm]

i'm looking thru my sources.list and notice these two lines:
deb (a server) testing (blah blah) and
deb (same server) stable (blah blah)
if it smart/good to access files from both the testing adn stable branches? also, for the security server (security.debian.org) should i only use stable or testing or both?

[Tyr-7BE]

It all depends on what you want. Stable is self-explanitory. "unstable" will give you cutting-edge software. It deserves the "" because 99% of the time, it's perfectly stable. Testing is bleeding-freakin-edge so you might not want to use testing if you're concerned about linux working at all :)
I have all of my sources listing both stable and unstable, so it's perfectly acceptable.

[Derango]

Actualy, the testing distro is not the more unstable version, unstable is.


stable
The ``stable'' distribution contains the most recent, officially released distribution of Debian. This is the production release of Debian.
The current ``stable'' distribution of Debian GNU/Linux is version 2.2r2, codenamed potato. It was released on December 5th, 2000.

testing
The ``testing'' distribution contains packages that haven't been accepted into a ``stable'' release yet, but they don't have release-critical bugs filed against them, and have been in use for a while. See the more detailed explanation.
The current ``testing'' distribution is woody.

unstable
The ``unstable'' distribution is where active development of Debian occurs. Generally, this distribution is run by developers and those who like to live on the edge.
The ``unstable'' distribution is called sid.


As for your original question, I've noticed sometimes stable releases a package with a security fix or somthing a little sooner than testing and unstable. I keep both in my sources.list

[Unruly]

ARGGGGGHHHH....

this is the one irritating thing about linux that I can't stand, and is usually what drives me away.

DEPENDANCIES!

I try to get ximian/helix/whatever to install, and it does fine when I first install libranet, but when I go to do an apt-get upgrade, it ****s it up pretty bad, to the point where it wont let me even use GNOME.

So, here I am, sitting here, trying to type in a small, cramped window with a fontsize from hell, trying to figure out how to fix my problems... *sigh* all I want to do is get my computer working... and nothing, save a complete reinstall of linux, seems to do much good.

[knute]

I have both in my sources list simply because if I find that I need a program that has a dependency that is not in the unstable or testing catagory, it can be found in stable.