It seems to me that the goal testing was set to accomplish has never been fulfilled. It was supposed to be RC-bug free, or very nearly so, and if one wanted a newer version of some package, one had to fix bugs in its unstable version so that it could enter testing. The problem is that sometimes a bug is discovered after a package has entered testing, thus defeating its purpose. As it stands, it only helps to prevent the freezing of unstable when preparing for a new release, but is this really necesary, given that Debian has also experimental? It seems to me that the way testing ended up being used has to be very carefully thought over and see if it is worth keeping. Maybe it doesn't do what it was supposed to do. But it may be useful none the less.

--?JorgeSantos