On Wednesday, February 12, 2003 00:57, Kesav Tadimeti wrote: > I am thinking of installing Debian. I do not, however, want to spend too > much time doing that. I have installed FreeBSD 4.3 before, so I'd like to > know if Debian (Woody) installation is as easy/difficult as FreeBSD.
They're a little different, but they're both text console (dialog/curses) menu-based, and are fairly straightforward once you've spent a short time familiarizing yourself. Debian's installer has a bad reputation, however I think this reputation was based on previous installer versions: I find Woody's installer much better, because the questions it asks are so much better worded than before, and the default options are almost always the correct (or at least safe) ones. Most people I've talked to recommend using tasksel (to select groups of packages) rather than dselect (to select individual packages) at install time, then using a tool such as apt-get to install new packages and keep the system up-to-date after the system is installed. Once your system is properly installed, you're unlikely to want or need to return to the installer. It's interesting that both FreeBSD (libh) and Debian (debian-installer) are both working on a new installer. > Second, are most of the application packages (.DEB) contained within the > 7-CD set? Or do I have to connect to the internet to have them installed. > (like FreeBSD's ports. In case of FreeBSD Only some apps are available as > packages, the others have to built from ports). Almost all are available on the 7 CD set. There are a select few packages which must be built from source for copyright reasons, but these are non-critical packages, and I suspect they are all in the "non-free" Debian distribution. As the 1st CD contains enough for a decent GNU/Linux installation plus the core parts of the KDE and GNOME desktops, I usually recommend getting just the 1st CD and downloading any extra packages from your nearest Debian mirror. Hope this helps -- Michael Wardle Adacel Technologies -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
