> > connect to the net, I can't, because I have DSL connection that uses
> > PPPoE. This is where the base tarball would have helped me out a lot.
>
> i don't know what can be done about that hideous thing known as
> pppoe. but the base tarball is dead and will likely never return.
That's a shame, because it'll leave a lot of people that can't use network
or CDROM to install from out in the cold.
> the reason we killed the base tarball was because it was a nightmare
> to maintain/build and required a rebuild of the boot-floppies just to
> update a package in base, debootstrap eliminates all that hassle.
Sure, but the 'install base system from a single tarball, have yourself a
functional system' was always a big selling point IMHO. Leaving out this
feature makes Debian a tad more like the other distros: rather mediocre.
The 'need to rebuild' thing was more of a makefile bug than anything else
(split boot-floppies in multiple packages, one for base, one for the
ramdisks, yadda yadda) and be done with a debian/rules base ...
But I'm not doing boot-floppies, feel free to ignore me.
Michael
