Translation(s): Français.
Sid is always the codename for unstable.
What is in Unstable
Debian unstable is the collection of the latest and greatest packages which have been introduced into the Debian system. If you are a hardcore developer or tester you should use this release. If you are a poweruser you might think about using testing.
New packages are added to unstable each day around 1900 UTC right from the upload directory. This means that packages are virtually untested right after. When things break people usually start talking about it on debian-devel in the following hours.
Consideration
One of the real funnies was when pam broke. Pam does all the user checking, so without pam no-one can log in. Not even root could log in. You must be able to handle such situation when you're running unstable.
FAQ
What's the current status of Unstable ? :: You should have a look at debian-devel IRC chanel topic (or TopicDebianDevel)
See also
- Unstable
Avoid using the unstable branch and How is security handled for testing and unstable?(from the "Securing Debian Manual")
Status/Unstable - Current status of Unstable.
DebianReleases - more about the different Debian releases.
Debian Stable - The official Debian release (the one with the fewer bugs, and security issues).
Debian Testing - repository with packages from unstable, if no bugs are found within 10 days..