[TriLUG] Debian any good?

[crimsun at fungus.sh.nu]

On Sun, Feb 01, 2004 at 12:32:38AM -0500, Peter Long wrote:
> Thanks for the advice. I did not realize that it was possible to install 
> Debian off the KNOPPIX CD! Actually I am busy using jigdo to build the 
> Debian3r2 iso's now. 7 CDs is a lot. Do I really need all of them?

<pedantic>You're not really installing "Debian" from the KNOPPIX CD.
As others have pointed out, KNOPPIX is really a mutt of various parts
of the Debian distribution with external sources tacked on for a more
current and well-rounded feel.</pedantic>

With that said, no, you do not need all 7 CDs. In fact, William and I
demonstrated a minimal install over the network booted from a 32 MB
iso image. This is known as the "netinstall" method, outlined here:

http://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst

I recommend you consider the XFS netinstall method using the image here:

http://people.debian.org/~blade/XFS-Install/download/bootbf2_4-xfs_iso.zip

> Although I do use the machine primarily as my mail server and firewall 
> it does also see use as a Desktop machine from time to time. Its a bit 
> slow for heavy use(PII 350 w/256MB RAM). My RedHat 8 distro had KDE 
> 3.0.5 on it. I see that Debian Stable only has 2.2.something ancient. 
> That sounds a little more "stable" that I like. However I don't want the 
> machine crashing every ten minutes. Should I go for the "Testing" 
> release instead?

No, I strongly advise you to consider only Woody (the current "stable"
distribution). Sarge (the current "testing" distribution) and Sid (the
perpetual "unstable" distribution) do not receive security support. In
fact, high-priority security updates are for stable only; unstable only
receives them as a by-product of package updates, and these must pass a
rudimentary QA holding period before they'll pass into testing. In other
words, testing receives security updates last.

With that said, many, many people contribute to the Woody backports
project. Several members of this list have experience installing
packages from this website:

http://www.backports.org/

Additionally, you may find the official KDE 3.1.5 debs on KDE's
ftp site for Woody.

A side note regarding "stable": No new packages enter the stable
distribution ever, only security updates. One of the reasons Debian
"stable" has always been (and will continue to be) highly regarded by
Linux system administrators is because the structure and content does
not change. This is not a sign of stagnation or of complacency. We take
great pride in our distributions of choice, and the decision to maintain
Debian stable in this manner is, in my opinion, well-put in its
ramifications.

-- 
Daniel T. Chen          crimsun at fungus.sh.nu
GPG key:   www.sh.nu/~crimsun/pubkey.gpg.asc
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