How reliable is Debian?
Debian has always been very cautious/deliberate very stable and very trustworthy, and it’s comparably easy to use for the security it provides. Also the community is big, so it’s more likely that somebody notices shenanigans.
Why you should not use Debian?
1. Debian Software Is Not Always Up To Date. The cost of Debian’s stability is often software that is several versions behind the latest. But, for a desktop user, Debian’s frequent lack of up-to-dateness may be frustrating, especially if you have hardware unsupported by its kernel.
What’s the difference between MIPS and Debian MIPSEL?
The MIPS port is actually two ports, debian-mips and debian-mipsel. They differ in the endianness of the binaries. MIPS CPUs are able to run at both endiannesses, but since that’s normally not changeable in software, we need to have both architectures.
Can a Loongson 3 machine run in Debian MIPS?
SGI machines run in big-endian mode (debian-mips) while the Loongson 3 machines run in little-endian mode (debian-mipsel). Some boards, such as Broadcom’s BCM91250A evaluation board (aka SWARM) can run in both modes, selectable by a switch on the board. Some Cavium Octeon based machines can switch between both modes in the bootloader.
Who is the lead MIPS Porter in Debian?
You can find us on IRC on irc.debian.org on the channel #debian-mips. The porterboxes and most of the build servers for the mips and mipsel architectures are provided by Imagination Technologies. Thiemo Seufer, who was the lead MIPS porter in Debian, got killed in a car accident.
What kind of machines can I use Debian on?
Loongson 3 machines (little-endian). Cavium Octeon (big-endian). In addition to the above machines, it is possible to use Debian on a lot more machines provided that a non-Debian kernel is used. This is for example the case of the MIPS Creator Ci20 development board.