1. It never asked me the hardware config questions I was used to with both
woody and sarge. What happened to them, how do I find out what device support
is installed, and get support for devices that might not be installed (i.e.,
download drivers for stuff- although now that I've said it, I guess they're just
apt packages, right?).
hardware support boils down to drivers compiled into the kernel or
compiled as modules. to check if certain modules are loaded do 'lsmod'.
i am not sure how to check if certain drivers are compiled into the
kernel.
2. My desktop went from KDE to Gnome. Is this normal? Where do I set the
default desktop?
often times you can choose your desktop by using your display manager.
the default desktop probably depends on which display manager (gdm, kdm,
or xdm) is running.
3. This machine is to be used primarily for software development. Any opinions
on which desktop is best for that?
4. I can't log in to the X desktop as root. Where do I fix that? Is this in
/etc/X11/config (I'm not at my Debian system)?
again, the display manager (at least for gdm) has a setting where you
can disable root logins.
-matt zagrabelny