UPDATE questions (linux update, 2.7.4 release)

I apologize if this is documented somewhere but I can't find it after more then hour of searching so decided to ask. I remember while back in the era of EMC there was an issue if you follow the "update manager" of the underlying linux and update the system... everything would go to hell and would either stop working or performance would die ... now, many years later, new name, new age .. what's the deal with updates? I see ~200 updates available, bunch of irrelevant stuff (bind, ssh..) that should not affect how linuxcnc works but some that might like amd64-microcode, aptdaemon, base-files, live-tools (whatever that is)... I see 2 repo's from linuxcnc are added to the system already (linuxcnc.org wheezy base 2.7-rtai + source) I also see 4 more master-rt and 2.7-rt that are not (what are those?) .. and I see from debian wheezy and wheezy-updates .. should those be used at all? or is it safe to update from them? I'm a long time vms/sco/irix/ultrix/solaris/linux user but I never used debian so maybe these questions about repo's are "Stupid" but still..

thanks

cool, so as long as I'm staying withing "7.10 wheezy" I'm ok, cool thanks

how about kernel updates? I don't see any but? I know RH updates kernel inside the release (rh user for many years, they keep the same version but cherry pick updates and backport) not sure what debian does?

cool, thanks. I don't need to upgrade anything really as I use dedicated box for cnc, just hate the "notifications" so I either update the sw or kill the notifications but the red triangle and "xxx updates available" gets on my nerves so it has to go one way or the other but good to know how / why things work

btw I seen 2.7.4 is rather new and wheezy is rather old, any reason why 2.7 is not built on top of newer debian?

make sense !! thanks