Re: I'm new to Debian and need advice

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

Kirk,

  Thanks for the response!

> I can't speak for most people, but I personally enjoy testing.  It's not
> quite as stable as, well, stable, but I rarely encounter any significant
> errors.  The benefit is that you get much newer versions of many of the
> packages.

  That helps.  I will probably be installing the testing version, then.

 
> > If you had to pick a new sound card, which would you pick?
> 
> I've had great luck with Ensoniq PCI (ES1371 chipset) cards.  They're very
> basic, but sound good and are well-supported by pretty much every OS in
> existence.

  By "every OS," I wonder if you know whether DOS and OS/2 in particular
are supported?


> > If you had to pick a new modem, which would you pick?
> 
> I have a Diamond Multimedia (was "Supra" when I bought it - before DiamondMM
> bought Supra) SupraExpress 56e external.  It's truly an outstanding
> performer.  Along those lines, pretty much all external modems will work
> without any special effort.

  Thanks.  This has been a tough research project for me.  I had hoped
that an external USB modem would be an option, but apparently it isn't
(at this time).  This computer doesn't have a lot of room left inside
the case, so I want an external modem, but there seems to be a lot of
confusion about what will work and what won't work with Linux.  I've
noticed that the "real" modems (as opposed to "Winmodems") cost
significantly more.  Hopefully the one I get will last for a while!


Thanks again for your help,
Dave W.