I'm new to Debian and need advice

[David Witbrodt <dawitbro@alpha.delta.edu>]

Hi,

  I'm in the process of backing up a decade's worth of old files I
want to keep, burning to CD-R.  Once finished, I plan to partition and
install 4 OS's, including Debian.
  I have the CD from a book, "Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 Unleased", but the
kernel there is 2.0.36.  From the reading I've done, especially the
"Large Disk HOWTO", this kernel won't work with my 40 Gb HD.  It looks
like I'll have to make boot floppies and download the rest, or have
someone burn a CD for me.

  My first question is:  will potato work with my 40 Gb HD, or do I
need sid or woody?
  My second question is:  even if potato would work, should I get sid
or woody anyway?  (It looks like most people are running the "testing"
version even though it might crash more, right?  Bear with me... I'm
new to Debian... haven't even installed it yet!)

  Then, the computer that I just got was a gift, and it was packaged
with a Riptide chameleon combo card with modem and sound on the same
card.  I've looked around and it looks like this card won't work with
Linux, so I need to replace it.  (It's crap anyway, so I'm going to
replace it even if it is supported now.)  So my third and fourth
questions are:

	If you had to pick a new sound card, which would you pick?
	If you had to pick a new modem, which would you pick?

Thanks,
Dave W.