new Debian installation

[Faheem Mitha <faheem@email.unc.edu>]

Dear People,

I am considering doing a Debian installation on two machines. One of them
is a Ultra 5 and the other a Ultra 30 CREATOR. These machines are
currently both running Solaris. I don't know anything about the Sparc port
of Debian; I've only used Debian on i386 thus far.

I've been looking around at the mailing list archives, but it is difficult
to get a sense of this; so I am asking. How does the difficulty of getting
a machine up and keeping it running in Debian on these Sparc machines
compare with the difficulty in doing so on an i386 machine, (which I think
is quite easy)? Is it considerably more work? The reason I am asking is
that I don't want to make a commitment to maintaining something that is
going to involve a great deal of time and effort. Also, are there any
known issues with the machine types listed above?

My impression from the mailing list is that there are numerous small
issues that come up on Sparc which don't come up on i386, because the
latter is such a standard architecture.

Also, is anyone in a position to compare how the Sparc port of Debian
works in comparison to the NetBSD/OpenBSD ports? My understanding is that
the FreeBSD port is not yet functional.

Please cc me. I'm currently not on the list. Thank you.

                                           Sincerely, Faheem Mitha.