My debian netinst cd download is still a nice 32mb (the buisnesscard CD iso) and it works fine.
I think your 108mb has a few more frills than mine. Like maybe a few default packages.
Debian is not intended to be a "newbie" distribution. The developers try to make it have the most stable and secure applications available. Period. Beyond that is up to the user.
Personally, I hate distributions that make me install an X server from the get-go. Even DSL sometimes ticks me off because I cannot get to a bash prompt as a non-root user without X starting.
Debian gives you Linux. Pure and simple. And stable as a rock.SU speaketh the truth - the more I fiddle with it the more I can see its power - Debian's amazing. The aptitude system is great - clean uninstalls in theory. Damnsmall's prepared me for "fiddly bits" and the general structure of the thing so installing debian didn't come as too much of a shock. You're right about the non-newbie thing - but it's clear they're trying to make it smoother with this new install process. The main barrier is the docs: their installation guide stops short of telling you how to configure X - I just learned they have a package that'll do it for you (xdebconfigurator) but they don't even mention that.
The 108MB netinst cd is new with Debian 3.1 apparently, I think they're still working it out since they are asking for install reports. The business card is still there.
Someone has developed their own install cd which looks very interesting Debian Pure.
Today I topped up the net install using the first full install cd #1. There's a HUGE amount of stuff on that one CD: Gnome and KDE + bells & whistles, five web browsers or so, a pile of development stuff, a pile of shells and terminal emulators, usual network programs, interpreters such as python, text editors etc etc all kinds of desktop and admin software, ~ 6 kernel images ready to go, the list goes on and on... I might have to start uninstalling some of it...
Makes me wonder if I need to look at CD#2....!
PS: There's a very nice piece on the strengths of Debian vs other OSs here.Who cares. You have DSL downloaded, haven't you?
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Who cares. You have DSL downloaded, haven't you?
This thread is in 'water cooler', which is for non-DSL discussion.Actually, the reason I was led to install Debian is because of dsl. dsl is Debian-based and this topic is about Debian.
So care or don't care or post somewhere else. I was just sharing my experiences.Next Page...
original here.
