Andrei Popescu wrote:
Yes. You certainly have to plough your way through the Debian website to understand what you need to do. A prominent "How to get started with Debian" page might work. Just short and sweet, but explaining all the different ways of getting a system set up - buying CDs, downloading (jigdo), burning isos, net install, etc. Some thing a bit more attractive to compete with the graphic design of a commercial page perhaps?Hello list Maybe it's a bit OT, but we do want new users, or not? ;-)I have noticed that many newcomers to Debian often seem to not understand that one of the big differences between Debian and other distros/OSes is that you don't need to download EVERYTHING. They probably get the impression that by downloading only the net-install CD or the first CD/DVD they would not be able to benefit from everything Debian has to offer.Is this just a false impression of mine? I wanted to get some more opinions before bringing this to debian-www. Maybe they could put some more emphasis on this (great) feature of Debian. I can even imagine newcomers getting scared of the huge number of .iso (14 for i386) to download on the first install and possibly every upgrade (another feature maybe not enough advertised). Andrei
Not everyone has a fast internet connection. If you were downloading isos on someone else's broadband, I would think that you would probably manage with just the first 2 CDs to start with. I notice that the first Sarge DVD appeared on the cover of some UK Linux magazines soon after it was released. This is a great way to get started - especially as there will be an accompanying article in the magazine. I also remember hearing about a true Debian live CD project.
I do remember there being talk of a "Debian-lite" CD, or does the first iso actually achieve this? If not, I suppose you might need separate KDE and Gnome CDs.
Chris.