Re: Few Questions From a New Debian User
On Wednesday 20 February 2002 12:18 am, Francis Pineda
wrote:
> Greetings Debian Community!
>
> I am currently a computer networking student researching
> different flavours of Unix/Linux. From the advice of my
> instructor, I have shosen to research Debian. He says
> it's, "Really Cool" I find it very appealing and hope to
> install it as soon as my system is set up.
cool? heh...you have much to learn :)
>
> I have a few specific questions I'd like to ask. The
> information on your webpage and FAQ is simply so immense,
> a simple site search is a bit confusing.
>
> 1. What is the user base targeted? Is it simply geared
> towards the home-user looking for a free OS? Or is it
> geared more towards the power-user?
>
power-user...it's not pretty to look at or set up but once
you get it up and running, i can almost guarantee you won't
be dissapointed! apt-get is a most powerful tool...you'll
get to know it very well... :)
remember, linux is linux...the kernel...and debian is a
nice OS that has a really nice set of tools...very
nice...so no matter what distro you choose, you can
basically make them all look and act the same...it's just
what they do and how they do it that's a little different.
> 2. Where is Debian located? I understand there are over
> 800 distrubuters nationwide that communicate via e-mail
> and message boards. But is there a specific "home" to
> debian?
go to the debian website (debian.org) and have a looksee at
the 'download' section. there, you should find no problem
finding a decent mirror. i use DSL and was able to download
the entire ISO image in about 2 hours...and now i have
about 20 copies lying around :)
>
> 3. What is the latest Kernel version?
me personally? i use a slightly patchy but stable
2.4.17...it seems to get the job done fine...and it's
considered 'stable'...so far as i can tell, it is. haven't
had any major OR minor upsets. 'tis nice...
>
> 4. What is the default desktop? and what others are
> included?
the 'desktop' that debian 'comes' with is GNOME. and while
i love the good ol' cute little footprint, i like lite and
easy. i'm a HUGE fan of Blackbox...and now the codebase has
been updated to a slicker version called Fluxbox...it's
small and liteweight...again...i seek simplicity...and it
does the job just fine...with a few Windowmaker dock apps,
i have a fully functioning workstation that does it all...
http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net
>
> 5. What, if any, office suites are included?
some basic ones? well...it's a little hefty but the KDE
desktop has some pretty sweet office goodies...my fave is
Kmail...but it comes at a price...you have to download all
the necessary KDE libraries which are a bit taxing on the
diskspace :) but nonetheless nice. there's also
gnotepad+, AbiWord, and so many more...
>
>
> Thank You very much and I look forward to joining the
> wonderful world of open source OS!
>
> Francis Pineda
> Phoenix, AZ
debian nice...debian good...
:)
good luck and drop me a line if you have specific questions
about installing/setup!
-jeff
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