I think actually the stable refers more to the lack of change rather than the "stability" of the codebase. The platform is stable. It doesn't change often. And when it does it is just to back port a security fix from a newer version of package XYZ etc... Perfect for long lived systems.

I guess, the 'stable' bit refers not so much to how old the application 
or the package is, but how well it has been tested. That's probably the 
best way of describing this. Certainly some bugs get through, even in 
Debian Woody, but you don't have a trivial package update leaving your 
system unbootable as a general rule.

Regards




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