[TriLUG] Debian installation.

Fri May 23 11:04:07 EDT 2003

Yeah, the installer has been one of the biggest bugaboos for Debian.
Actually, though, Progeny had a really good graphical installer for Debian
that I'm surprised that they haven't wholeheartedly adopted, since Progeny
seems to have donated their entire code base to the Debian project upon
their demise as a corporate entity.  I can't speak to Libranet or Knoppix'
installers, not having used them, but rest assured that Debian's install
process is getting and will continue to get easier and more user friendly.
As with all things in Debian, it takes time, largely because the developers
are very dedicated to writing good code, and making sure that their products
are the best they can possibly be.  Since many of those folks are doing it
in their free time, things get a little slower.  Fact of the matter is,
though, that once something is released as 'stable', you can count on it
being about as close to unbreakable as code can get.  Naturally, as
technology evolves, and related code gets modified, more bugs and security
issues pop up, but Debian seems to do a very good job of correcting those
issues.  For example, if a version of libc6 that Debian is using has a bug,
they won't put the version from 'testing' into 'stable'.  They'll fix the
version already in 'stable' to fix the bug, but no upgrade any features, or
add anything to it that might compromise the stability or security of that
package as it stands.  New features come out in 'testing', but a while
before 'testing' becomes 'stable', all feature additions are frozen, and
from there until the release, it's nothing but bug hunting in the current
code base.  I can admire that.

Nonetheless, 'Sarge' (testing) is great for the average home user.  It's
more stable than almost any Windows or RH box that I've ever run, updates
are a breeze, and there is a good selection of largely up to date packages.
When 'Sarge' becomes 'stable', and there is a new 'testing' distro, most
folks move to that.  'stable' is largely there for those running production
boxes  that they just simply don't want to, or don't need to upgrade for any
reason.  I'm sure that we could find a few 'Hamm' or 'Slink' boxes still
running out there, for that matter, and plenty of 'Potato' boxes.  (for
those not in the know, every time a new 'testing' distro is generated, it's
named after a character from 'Toy Story', which is why the unstable distro
is always called 'Sid'.  So far, we've had Buzz, Rex, Bo, Slink, Hamm,
Potato, Woody, and now 'Sarge'.  Watch the movie for guesses as to the next
version.)  In any event, 'testing' is typically the best for the average
desktop user who wants to play around with a Debian distro that's not only
up to date, but also more stable than your average OS.

Regards,
Ben Pitzer

---------------------------------------------

"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety
 deserve neither liberty nor safety."
 --Ben Franklin--

> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-admin at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-admin at trilug.org]On Behalf
> Of al johson
> Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 11:52 AM
> To: trilug at trilug.org
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Debian installation.
>
>
> And there ARE simpler installation loaders being developed for Debian.
> Knoppix has a great one (on their demo disk at least), and I'm aware of
> another as well, which I'm trying to get my hands on, which is popular in
> South America called Libranet. If you believe the review in Lockergnome's
> Penguin Shell newsletter, it makes installing Debian Linux almost
> as easy as
> installing Red Hat and Mandrake. Unfortunately, the author of that
> newsletter has left and the new editor says that she isn't going
> to install
> and give reports on all the various "flavors" of  Linux (it seems she's
> "married" to RedHat :-). Yes, there are still differences, but
> never assume
> that anything in the Linux world is static.
>
>     One thing you CAN bet on Linux in all its flavors is in a
> constant state
> of improvement, which is why I like it so much, especially considering the
> alternative (where instead of real improvements all you get are
> new bugs and
> problems which are definitely not better than their earliest version!!).
>
> So if you don't want to do a difficult, manual (non-GUI) install
> of Debian,
> just watch and wait!!
>
> Remember there are literally more distributions of Linux than
> anyone can try
> out, and some of them are Debian!!---Al Johnson.
> ====================
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tarus Balog" <tarus at sortova.com>
> To: <trilug at trilug.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 4:23 PM
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Debian installation.
>
>
> >
> > Ken Wahl said:
> >
> > > Thanks, this was useful for me.  I've been a Red Hat user
> since 6.2 and
> > > I was thinking of giving Debian unstable a whirl.  I wanted to ask for
> > > this very type of feedback from RedHat users about their experiences
> > > installing Debian but was afraid the question would come off
> as a troll
> > > and/or start a distro war.
> >
> > I just rebuilt my main server this morning (with a Debian wizard's help)
> > and the one thing to emphasize is that Debian's install doesn't seem to
> > auto-detect hardware as well as Red Hat's install process. So be sure to
> > know the manufacturer and model of your network card, graphics
> card, etc.
> > (those were the two I needed, and it only needed to be as specific as
> > "EtherExpress Pro" and "ATI"). Outside of that it was pretty slick.
> >
> > What I liked about woody is that since the new CDs are out,
> there was very
> > little that had to be downloaded to get current stable.
> >
> > Finally, if you want the latest kernel, start the process with
> disk number
> > 5 - that will install 2.4.18 - and then insert disk number 1 when asked.
> >
> > -T
> > --
> > Tarus Balog
> > Consultant
> > Sortova Consulting Group, http://www.sortova.com
> > +1-919-696-7625
> > tarus at sortova.com
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TriLUG mailing list
> >     http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> > TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
> >     http://www.trilug.org/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> TriLUG mailing list
>     http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ:
>     http://www.trilug.org/faq/TriLUG-faq.html
>