First impressions on installing Debian 1.3
These are my first impressions, feel free to just delete this post.
>From a guy who has used Linux since 1993 or so, I found the installation
to be non-trivial:
- The use of a single boot disk didn't help me with my Adaptec SCSI card.
I *think* there are alternative kernels in some directory, but none were
found on my TRI-linux CD.
- I think standard Unix jargon should be included as well as more
accessible language. For example, I didn't realise that `initialize a
disk' meant to reformat it's filesystem, deleting everything on the disk.
- I didn't really like the interface of dselect. It's easy to get lost in
there. Perhaps changing the background colour according to the context?
(different background colour during conflict resolution; this package
suggests this other (in blue foreground); this package conflicts
altogether (in red)). I know dselect has a terrible complicated job to
do. That's why i think it deserved a bit more polish. After all, it's
the first reall interaction a user gets with Debian.
- dselect wouln't `install' because the teTeX packages appeared to be damaged.
Problem persisted even when the offending packages were deselected,
until I quit and restarted dselect. This was quite aggravating.
- After X was installed it wouln't start because /dev/tty0 didn't exist.
- Once started, very few fvwm95 menu entries used mini-icons. Too bad.
On the other hand:
- I can install Slackware much more quickly than Debian, but then I have
to install extra stuff like Dosemu on my own, whereas a lot of stuff
is included with Debian. It'll take me weeks to explore the possible
packages I could install.
- The docs appear to be quite extensive. It'll take a lot of time to sort
it all out!
A question...
- I assume that the list of installed packages is in some file. Is it
possible to transfer this file to another PC to instruct Debian to
install the same pacakges? I often install on several PCs and this
would be a nice feature.
--
Peter Galbraith, research scientist <galbraith@mixing.qc.dfo.ca>
Maurice-Lamontagne Institute, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
P.O. Box 1000, Mont-Joli Qc, G5H 3Z4 Canada 418-775-0852 - FAX 418-775-0546
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