On Mon, 2002-07-22 at 16:28, Debian Mail wrote: > > what image should I download just 1 or all 7 > > I generally just get the first CD. Things I don't find there will be > loaded directly from the net. With apt-get this is really easy. Agreed. apt-get is the advantage that will repay you tenfold if you decide to go through the slightly more painful installation mentioned below. > > I have a intel system ??? > > and new at this never tryed Linux before > > Hm, Debian may be a little tough then... As a newbie you're probably > better off with one of the commercial distros (Suse seems to be quite > well suited for beginners). Will save you some frustration. A) I've seen some newbies struggle with Debian, and I've see other refreshed that we don't try to hide what's going on, which was what really pissed them off about that other operating system in the first place, because it would never tell them what went wrong. B) If you're going to recommend an alternative, which I admit will suit some people more than Debian, do we really have to recommend the one major distribution that is non-free software? SuSE's installer "YaST" has a non-free license, which means that you don't get all the advantages of Free Software that you get with almost all the other distributions, especially Debian. When someone finally decides to take the plunge, and try Free Software, redirecting them back to the land of proprietary software doesn't seem overly productive. Also, from what I can tell, SuSE is easier for the same reasons as Windows --- it cocoons you from the underlying Operating System, so while it makes the first install easier, it make educating toyrself about how the system actually works more difficult. Perhaps the decision to move to Free Software was prompted by a hinger to learn, in which case, I don't think SuSE is a choice I'd recommend, simply because you end up learning about YaST, more than about GNU or Linux. That said, technically SuSE is pretty good, just a shame about the silly licensing decision w.r.t. YaST. > But if you have a good IT background you can try Debian right > ahead. Sooner or later you'll probably get back to it anyway :-) That on the other hand, I can agree with wholeheartedly :-) > > if I can I would like to send you a few bucks to help a tiny bit? If after this you still decide you want to install Debian anyway (despite our marvellous marketing team ;-), then if you want to help us, take detailed notes of how it went, and what problems you had, and why, and when you're confident enough to do so, send write them up, and ask around for where is the best place to send them --- newbies are a scarce resource, and as soon as you've done this once, your perceptions are changed, and you'll never again be able to put yourself in the newbie mindset, so usability testing from newbies is pretty much impossible to come by. A description of how you got on, and what problems made you get really stuck is likely to be much more valuable to us that a few bucks, but thanks for the offer, it was very kind. :-) Cheers, Phil. -- Say no to software patents! http://petition.eurolinux.org/ |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] http://www.hands.com/ |-| HANDS.COM Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/ |(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND
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