Questions (and hello) from a new (Progeny) Debian user.
Hi,
I'm a relatively new user of Linux and have since yesterday, migrated
from SuSE 7.1 to a boxed version 1.0 of Progeny Debian.
I chose Progeny because of my perception that Progeny would be easier to
install and get running than the non-commercial Debian.
However, the progeny users site is extremely slow moving, and since I'm
unable to register on that site for some unknown reason, I'm hoping that
I might find some answers here.
Question 1 : -> Is there a simple blow by blow description on how to
install a deb package which is currently in a directory on my
hard-drive? .. or is anyone able to help me as I appear to be lacking a
basic understanding here.
The reason : ->
I'm trying to install Opera and understand that I need to edit
/etc/apt/sources.list .
I've inserted an entry "deb file:/home/downloads opera non-free" but
know that this is wrong, because when I run "apt-get update" it tells me
that it can't locate the file.
If I run apt-get install /home/download I get "W:couldn't stat source
package list 'file:/stable/opera/packages ... and " You may want to run
apt-get update to correct missing files"
Question 2 : -> What do you think of Progeny? Is it really "not a
separate distribution as Mandrake is to Red Hat"?
The reason : -> Debian's social contract. It states (if I understand it
correctly) that Debian will *always be 100% free ... as in free beer!
This means that there can never be a Debian that is driven by a desire
for commercial profit. As soon as this happens (the commercial pursuit
of profit) the distribution has changed from Debian.
Question 3 : -> Why not make Debian easier to install and to operate
with basic functionality (ie setup Internet access etc) to encourage
non-techie users to get their feet wet?
The reason: -> It appears that this is what Progeny is trying to do ...
but they are also pricing themselves beyond SuSE distro's and from a
commercial point of view and on face value, I believe SuSE still has the
edge with regard to simplicity of setup and availability of tools, at
half the price.
I like Debian, the more so that I have access to a local ftp site with
sub 200 ms ping rates ... which means I will be able to reasonably
perform online updates. This is for me, one of many compelling reasons
to eventually go *pure Debian. The other compelling reason is a gut
feeling that I'm on to something worthwhile :).
Cheers
Krisno
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