w3sz@xxxxxxxxxxx (w3sz) writes:
4. I decided to give Debian a try.
Sorry to hear you had problems. However, you mentioned that you tried
3.0r4,
which is the latest security update of the now now-ancient last stable
release.
The thing about Debian is that stable releases live a *long* time, and
rarely
install easily on new hardware.
I think you'd have a better experience with the pre-release of 'sarge'
which
is approaching release as the next stable version. You can find images
of
this version at:
http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
On x86 systems you'll get a 2.4 kernel by default but it's trivial to
install
a 2.6 version later, or start with one if you want. One of the big
changes
for 'sarge' is that it's based a new installer which asks many fewer
questions
than the old one, has various degrees of automation for icky bits like
disk
partitioning, etc.
You might also want to take a look at the Debian-derived Ubuntu
distribution,
which you can find at:
http://www.ubuntu-linux.org/
It installs easily on most modern systems with a default desktop
configuration
based on GNOME 2.8. Most of the benefits of Debian without most of the
pain.
They're aiming for new releases every 6 months. They've also got a live
boot
CD that you can try out without touching your hard disk... And if you
ask,
they'll mail you a CD set consisting of the live boot CD and the
single-CD
installation disk... for free. (see the quick links on the right)
Hope some of that helps you or others on this list.
73 - Bdale, KB0G