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General discussion

Is anyone here using Debian?

Jul 6, 2005 5:28AM PDT

Having my newer box set up with Mandrake 10.2 pretty much
how I like it, thought I would try something other than Mandrake 10.0 on the spare-parts box. FreeBsd was a bust, even with expecting Unix, maybe a bad download. Would like to try Debian. Tried jigdo and BitTorrent downloads with no luck. My 1st time using Bittorrent was sucessful,
but I can't turn them into ISO files to burn. Right now
I am downloading Debian 3.0 ISO files on FTP. Do I really need 7 disks, at over an hour each download time? chuck

Discussion is locked

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something easier
Jul 7, 2005 2:40AM PDT

I just installed Knoppix, which is like Debian but easier. One disc.

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Have had Knoppix for years....
Jul 7, 2005 3:28AM PDT

Have even installed it. My question was about Debian in particular. But, nevermind. I downloaded and burned all 8
disks(1 Update disk+7 install). Can always toss what i don't need. I remember my first Linux (RH9) came with 6 discs-3 install and 3 source code- in the boxed set. Dial-up days. Thanks anyway. chuck

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Try Xandros
Jul 13, 2005 7:13PM PDT

I have Xandros installed-- it is based on debian and it is my first debian install. I had no idea the debian repository was so big. APT-GET is wonderful! Xandros is great, a little too much hand holding for me though.

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Again, I was not shopping,
Jul 15, 2005 6:48AM PDT

was interested in Debian in particular. Have a drawer full of various Linux distros. Tried Debian 3.1(Sarge) and don't see the point. Based on a 2 year old kernel, has trouble installing programs, etc. It is advertised as Linux, but seemed more like Unix with a good gui. The line "not cutting edge, but stable" doesn't sound right. I haven't had stability issues with any newer Linux distro. But that's just me. chuck

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OK
Jul 15, 2005 5:19PM PDT

The answer is still YES.

And even more so should you try Xandros. Xandros is built on top of Debian and is like an upgraded version of it. Xandros has an OCE [Open Circulation Edition] that you can download freely via Bittorrent. Any skilled Linux user can easily turn it into a fully functional Linux box via the, again, wonderful, apt.

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Debian Flavors
Aug 10, 2005 11:55AM PDT

I heard some good things about apt in comparison to rpm distros, so I tried to load Gentoo w/o success. I then tried Ubuntu and that was too easy to install. It correctly sensed my Silicon Image SATA drives and SUSE 9.3 on the other drive. It asked which drive to format before doing so, edited and updated my Grub bootloader for me to dual boot both systems.

It seems to have the latest experimental versions of Gimp, OpenOffice, and the latest version 2.10 Gnome desktop and kernal, which I'm starting to switch camps from KDE 3.3. I've had terrible luck with compiling source packages in SUSE--actually have Scribus working on my Apple but not in my SUSE distro. So I'll give Ubuntu a try for a while. Mandriva is due out but they're usually a few kernals behind the rest of us chickens.

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Would use Debian, but...
Jul 30, 2005 6:12PM PDT

Btw, you only have to get about 3 CDs. The rest of the stuff you can download from the net. Also, it's often good to use experimental or unstable with Debian, as they are quite stable (I know a guy who uses unsable Debian for his WORK and it never crashes on him or anything), but that's just my experience.

I would be using Debian cuz I LOVE apt-get, but it doesn't detect my SATA drive correctly, can't get my net installed, and can't upgrade to 2.6 lol. If your hardware works with it, shoudl be fine though.