Debian install

[Chris Gray]

Having been through this recently, part of your answer depends on the 
age of the machine you plan to use for the installation.

Recently, I purchased an SC420 Dell server for the specific purpose of 
installing and becoming intimately conversant with Linux.  I chose 
Debian, and I guess I'm not really sorry about that, but in retrospect, 
a more modern, corporate supported Linux like Zeus might have been 
easier.  The big problem with Debian is the huge cycles between official 
releases. Woody is basically June, 2003, way too old!

Anyway, I chose to purchase the Woody set of CDs because that's the 
official release.  Bad move, and don't do it unless you're using older 
hardware!

The rule of thumb seems to be that the older the release, the older the 
kernel, and thus hardware support.

If I had the install to do over again, I'd go with the newest kernel 
along with Sarge that is available either on CD or, even better, through 
the network that is not on the 'unstable' branch.  I didn't have the 
network as an option because I couldn't get to the network until getting 
a newer kernel and module for my network adaptor.

Another possibly helpful comment:  I was amazed at how helpful the 
people were at Dell about this, even though Debian is not officially 
supported, only Red Hat.  They have a website devoted to Debian on Dells 
and an email list.  Your hardware vendor may do the same thing, and 
their advice can be extremely helpful.

Hope this is helpful.

Chris

On Tue, 8 Mar 2005, Andrew Hodgson wrote:

> Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 20:28:21 -0000
> From: Andrew Hodgson <andrew at hodgsonfamily.org>
> Reply-To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
>     <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux. <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Subject: Debian install
> 
> Hi,
>
> I am going to get some Debian CDs, and need to know whether to get Sarge
> or Woody R4 sets?  What is the easiest to install with Speakup, baring
> in mind I want to use Gnome?
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew.
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

-- 

Chris Gray, Sr. Technical Writer        Symantec Corporation
415-738-2649 voice 
415-348-9636 fax             		San Francisco, CA 94107