How to begin?

[Jake Griesbach <griesbac@gamera.colorado.edu>]

Hi,

Sorry for the ignorance here.  I'm interested in installing Debian on a
SparcStation 1+, but I'm not sure how to begin.  It doesn't have a floppy
drive, so I will need to boot over the network or from a CD.  I am very
familiar with x86 linux, and SunOS 4.1.3 which the machine currently runs.
Where can I get instructions on net booting for a network Debian
installation?

Do I need to keep SunOS on the machine?  I rather not, unless it means
decreased functionality.  (I have heard that the SunOS drivers are needed
to execute SunOS programs.)

I have another question unrelated to net booting:  when installing SunOS
from CD, it could only be installed from a Sun CDROM drive, a generic
CDROM drive would not be recognized by the kernel.  Is this true for
Debian Linux too?

Thanks for your help!

Jake Griesbach
University of Colorado