water cooler :: It's HUGE! Debian is 29 CD's big!



full blown debian?

do you really need 15 versions of the kernel, 5 versions of KDE, 4 versions of Gnome, both Xfree and Xorg, every server, runtime environment, window manager, and application in Christendom?

Debian is all about choices. And choices. And then more choices. With more choices on the side. With a few extra choices sprinkled on top.

Oh, and they spike the drink with even more choices.
Well said Said :)

 Green, I cana tell you that I have a Woody Debian install running on a 486-33 laptop with a 850 Meg HD. 32 megs RAM.

With Fluxbox.. as a window manager and it has basically all the bells and whistles I need.  Interent connectivity and editors, games ..etc..etc..

 I would arguably say that my little 486 ( once its booted) runs as well as the P-2 my wife has for a desktop.

 I have DSL on my Thinkpad..( my primary computer) and I love it.  I know that I can take my old 486 laptop to travel with.. and if I need anything off the net I can apt-get it and not think twice and it is rock solid.  I will tell you that my laptop was an expiriment for me.. it has no CD drive.. so I installed it completely from Floppy's  ( 30 to be exact).  It took me about a day to get the install completed.. but..consider this.  I spent one day.. doing the install, 4 years ago.. I used that as a primary laptop for 3 years.. and still pump it up and updates from time to time.. and for travel.
You might think that carrying around an old heavy 486 is silly in this day and age.. BUT..  Its a rock... it works.. and it has never given me any trouble at all.  never..

Mark
I have DSL as frugal on an old Stinkpad as well. A 600E (363Mhz 196Mb, 6G). Runs like a champ.

Okay, I guess it's just that I am opposed to over doing it. I think that these distros with so many "choices" that all come on CD is way over done. I don't think I'm a minimalist, because I prefer GUI to CLI for general usage.

All I can say is that I have been running DSL on this 600E for many months, updating KNOPPIX/knoppix as new releases come out. The only things I added were Aterm and Samba. I don't even need Aterm obviously and really don't need Samba. Other than that, DSL already has everything I need to get through a day. All that other stuff is fluff to me. I realize some folks need it and/or want it, that's great, it's just not for me.

Again, this demonstrates the beauty of open source: Choices.

29 CD's is too many choices for me, but some one's gotta like it.
Well, just to chime in, I've got DSL running on an old Micron Gobook, 233, 3.2g, 32mb ram, and I must admit, DSL basically brought that thing back from the dead... I've got the occasional problem with the CMOS clock (I'm too lazy to get a new cmos battery), but otherwise I can do everything I need to do on that laptop (which my brother was gonna toss)... I love choices, but sometimes it's nice to have JUST what you need...
This thread's probably dead, nevertheless...

I just installed my first Debian (new stable release) from the net-install cd over a slow connection. (EDIT: Apparently this is a brand new installation method for Debian). The net-install cd is ~ 108MB download, and it apt-gets another ~40MB I think for the base system (or did for mine).  I chose the "desktop" system. So far so good -- a really easy install process, I was particularly impressed by how it installs and sets up Grub for dual boot all by itself.

BUT "base system" is just that - actually no more than basic. After boot up you have the commandline blinking at you. There's no x-windows, no xserver-xfree86, and NO windows manager - not even fluxbox or similar - and no dillo or mozilla. And no instructions about setting any of that up. You have to apt-get all that and then configure xfree86 - hardly newbie-friendly.

When xfree86 refused to recognise my weird keyboard (everything else, including the ATI Rage video card, was ok) no matter what settings I put in, I booted Knoppix and overwrote the Debian xfree86 conf file with the one that Knoppix had autogenerated, and bingo! - all was fixed and Fluxbox, Firefox etc were up and running.

Now I'm downloading 2 or 3 of the full installation cds on a broadband connection so as to avoid any more painfully slow apt-getting at 5kb/s.

While I'm enjoying my new Debian system it would have to be asked - just WHAT the hell are the Debian developers thinking?  To any newbie, a "desktop" install comes with a "desktop" ie a windows manager and at least a basic web browser. Most won't know what xfree86 is, let alone be able to configure it, GUI or no.

Given dsl can pack all it does into 50MB, you really have to wonder why the deb folks don't pinch the knoppix autoconfigure scripts for xfree86 and at least put dillo, emelfm and scite into their "desktop system" net install... I mean, you have to wonder what exactly takes up 109MB in the net-install cd ...

Nonetheless Debian's really great, and dsl wouldn't be here without it.

EDIT: For those interested, there's a good review of this new installation process for the new Debian 3.1 here.  According to this, x-server IS supposed to be downloaded and some video cards "unreliably" autodetected - that download didn't happen with mine, maybe I selected a wrong option somewhere.
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