> The main difference is in how the kernel supports your hardware. The Woody > installer uses a fairly ancient kernel which may not support your > hardware properly and cause problems during the installation. > The RC3 version of the installer for Sarge [1] has a choice of either the > 2.4.27 or 2.6.8 kernel (see Fx helpscreens) and much better hardware > detection (and is more user friendly in general). > > What kernel you should go with depends entirely on your hardware. Some > systems seem better supported by 2.4.27, others by 2.6.8. > Some others have acpi problems with 2.6.8 and are happier with the > 2.6.10/11 kernels available in unstable, although you can only upgrade to > those after installation. > > Ubuntu uses basically the same installer as Debian Sarge, but with a > 2.6.10 kernel and therefore works better in some cases. > Thanks for the advice. Since my equipment is pretty old (circa 1999), I will probably go with kernel 2.4. Some of the howto's I'm finding on the internet discuss using even kernel 2.2 with Redhat 7.1.
I felt shaky about going with just debian, but after seeing the Raj Kombiyil's howto at http://modzer0.cs.uaf.edu/~wanderlust/wireless.htm, I feel much more confident. I haven't used the debian installer ever since I always install on no frills boxes, which is why I'm a little nervous about installing onto a laptop and wireless card. But actually, it looks like its not too bad. My plan is to go with Sarge and try to use the installer. If everything works but the wireless card, I'll just install that manually using the howto I found above. But if no reasonable functionality is obtained (which I highly doubt), I just might try Ubuntu. Thanks
