(Newbie) Functioning In Debian
Hello,
I am a newbie to both Linux and Debian, so let me immediately apologize
for my ignorance in my statements! I've tried many distributions,
including Red Hat, Mandrake, Lycoris, Lindows, Elx, SuSe, and Vector,
and so far I've found Debian to be most to my liking in terms of its
excellent philosophy and the unbeatable apt-get system. Trust me, it
was a steep learning curve for me, but once I got the hang of it I
really liked the control and stability. But I have some concerns.
It seems to me, for my purposes, that to function on the internet and
interact with the most prominent file types, it's necessary to use non-
free or unstable packages. For example, I recently had to apt-get the
non free Java (j2re1.3) from blackdown.org because certain websites I
frequent wouldn't function without it. From perusing various groups,
I've found that there are potential alternatives such as Kaffe for
Virtual Machines, but there wasn't enough solid documentation for a
newbie like me to be able to get it working under Mozilla (I had a hard
enough time figuring out how to symbolically link the Java stuff to
Mozilla to get it working--mind you I had no idea what a symbolic link
was until doing this).
Another site I frequent uses streaming Windows Media. Am I totally out
of luck there? I know there's this Crossover package that will run WM,
but it's definitely non-free. I haven't run into needing RealPlayer
support yet, but I wonder if there's a free clone of that that works
under debian-mozilla.
Please understand that I'm trying to wean myself away from Microsoft
products after years of frustration at their software despotism and my
lack of control over their annoying software, but I'm having a hard time
adapting to the Debian way of life.
If I start plugging in all these non-free, non-stable packages into a
stable Debian build, then is it really a stable system anymore? Yet it
seems like I need to add a lot of these additional packages just to
function. I'm confused! Believe me, I'm really, really drawn to Debian
and can tell already after just a few weeks of use that I'm a user for
life, but I wonder if there's some way to achieve a stable balance. I
can live just fine with Gnome 1.4 and Mozilla 1.0, but the other stuff I
mentioned earlier is harder to do without. And with all the backports
for newer versions like Gnome 2.2 and such, I wonder: is there anyone
out there who truly runs a stable-Debian only system?
Well, consider this my introduction to the world of GNU/Linux and,
especially, Debian. Feels good to be here!
Appreciatively and Sincerely,
M. Kirchhoff
Reply to: