Jonathan Hutchins wrote: > Any particular reason you're determined to stick with debian? This is what > it's like. It's for people who want to tinker and try fixing stuff and > writing their own drivers. > > If you're more interested in RUNNING linux than in working on it, you might > try one of the more "advanced" distributions, like SuSE, Fedora, or Mandrake. I don't think the above is accurate - Installing debian can be a pain -but if you can't wait for the installers to get better (the anaconda port is in alpha testing) just use libranet. BUT, once installed debian is the better choice. Having installed and tested all of the above mentioned distributions in the last 6 months, Debian is THE choice. We wanted to run the same distro for both desktops AND servers. SuSE had problems with NFS and defaulted to Reiser (I'm not anti Reiser - it just isn't as stable as ext3 and we didn't see any real performance difference.) It takes a lot of "tinkering" to switch file systems. I liked Mandrake for a desktop system, but it was too bleeding edge for server apps. Fedora is OK for desktops, but harder to update than Debian. Debian Stable is quite usable for servers and Debian Testing is more stable than Suse/Fedora or Mandrake which would be comparable to unstable. There is also experimental for tinkerers. Also - it is possible to run stable with a few packages from testing or even unstable if that is what is needed. Our servers are running fine as are the Desktops are running Testing with a few things borrowed from unstable. We haven't had to write any drivers and upgrading systems takes only a "wajig dailyupgrade" from a command line. The most important point: Debian isn't viral in cost; there isn't any plans for an IPO that depends on increasing user fees and introducing proprietary apps to keep you married to the Distro. This weekend I will be doing a somewhat difficult install for any of the Distros - I will be installing on a SATA drive system running a RAID. I had REDhat on this system - took compiling a special kernel and a bunch of hand tweaking of grub. Using a Libranet install disk I expect it to be easier than the redhat ordeal. -- -------------------------------------------------- Karl Schmidt EMail Karl@xtronics.com Transtronics, Inc. WEB http://xtronics.com 3209 West 9th Street Ph(785) 841-3089 Lawrence, KS 66049 FAX(785) 841-0434 Everyone has a photographic memory, some just don't have film. -------------------------------------------------