I definitely came to debian after two other distributions (Red Hat and SuSE). Part of it is that Debian is not seen on many Store shelves. I had to seek it out based on reputation. Part of it also is that the initial installation is not slick. For me that is now part of its attraction. I should explain that, while apt-get is truly slick after you have set up your machine, and the ftp-installation is very nice, the menu's are relatively low level. In fact, they look alot like the Red Hat 4.1 installation. As you move to a different installation, Please keep the old one as an option. If it were not for Debian, I would not have been able to install linux on my laptop (initial PCMCIA problems that prevented booting.)
ATC, I should think you would prefer Debian as the last DIST. as opposed to the first of many. Incidentally, the release times have had some significant consequences. The High Performance Computing Center where I get my cycles just changed a very nice cluster from Debian to Red Hat because the stable release is not very friendly to SMP, even though potato is. While it is true that you have had nimor releases, I believe they kept the same kernel (is this true?). If I am right, then to keep users, you should try to update kernels in minor releases. -- Arthur H. Edwards 712 Valencia Dr. NE Abq. NM 87108 (505) 256-0834
