[linux-audio-user] Debian and friends

Over the last few days I've been having quite a few problems with Debian stable and jack applications. I don't want to run sid or etch because I like to work with stable libraries and a base system. I'm comfortable doing backports and building packages myself. But lately I have been building so many packages myself I'm begining to feel like I'm making a little mini distro in my local apt repository. This got me thinking about potential alternatives to running sarge. So If you'll humor me for a minute, I'd like to take a little poll. This only concerns users/developers of real Debian and variants that pull from the official archives. 1) What Debian communities for audio software packaging are you a part of? 2) How do you install new releases to your system? 3) How often do you build your own kernel for audio systems? 4) If you're not running real Debian, what made you change? 5) If you are running real Debian, have you upgraded to etch or sid? I'll start by answering my own questions: 1) Not many. I'm looking through alioth and see some interesting projects but they have no notice of a package repo and the mailing lists are full of spam. 2) I usually don't. If I need to I'll try a backport, though this is failing with the version of jackd in sid. I don't know why. 3) I try not to as much as I can. Kernel compiling is a waste of time unless absolutely necessary for device support. I find myself compiling kernels for sound more than any thing else (video, web services). 4) I'm running sarge, eagerly awaiting etch. Thanks for your time... -lee