newbie comments
I just recently had the chance to install, and help a few Linux newbie's
install Debian. My comments pertain to 0.93R6 available on FTP sites.
Overall we liked it, better than Yggdrasil, and slightly better than
Slackware (though I put that down to familiarity).
The new users I help install Debian found the interface change between
the main install script and the timezone and partition sections a bit
disorienting. Perhaps they can be dressed up like Slackware?
Also, we found the copy of curses, or ncurses, "ruined" dselect's screen,
until we rebooted. Perhaps that can be automated.
We were also wondering in what package which/where are in? Since I (and
thus them) mainly use bash and it isn't part of the installed base. On
that topic, perhaps there could be an interface via the WWW so you could
type in the name of a program (say unzip), and see what package you need
to download to install it.
Lastly, I had been reading the FSSTND and was wondering how the members of
the Debian team were interpreting it. Are you/will you be making available
packages that reside in /usr/local/ ? Although the FSSTND says that no
distribution should put anything there initially, it does not specify what
can/should happen post installation. I, personally, would like things in
/usr/local/ so I could NFS export/mount that particular tree to
numerous machines.
Cheers,
Anand.
--
`When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to
its subjects, "This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are
forbidden to know," the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how
holy the motives' -- Robert A Heinlein, "If this goes on --"
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