[lug] Help installing debian at the install fest?

[David Morris]

On Thu, Jul 12, 2007 at 12:48:16AM -0600, siegfried wrote:
> Which debian should I use? It is so confusing and (as of
> six months ago) they did not explain the difference
> between sarge, etch and the other releases. I know I don't
> want sarge because it is extremely old! There is
> probably one newer than etch now.

I can't help much with the rest of the questions (I won't be
at the install fest, but it is *always* easier to solve
problems in person than via email), but I can help with this
one:

Etch, Sarge, Woody, etc. are all codenames for different
debian versions.  Unless you're a Linux guru, don't worry
about the codenames.  All you need to know is 'stable',
'testing' and 'unstable':

stable: The current stable release of Debian
testing: The next release of Debian in preparation to become stable
unstable: The bleeding edge.   Use at your own risk.

For most users, use the 'stable' release.  If you know what
you are doing with Linux and need more current versions of
applications use 'testing', but prepare for some
applications to be broken from time to time.  Avoid
'unstable' unless you want lots of pain and frustration.

Now, I love Debian and it is my Linux distribution of
choice because it has the most sane default settings of any
distro I've used and is guaranteed stable......however that
stability comes at a cost.  The 'stable' distribution
contains packages that are sometimes *very* old compared to
other distributions.  Its the only real drawback to Debian,
but its a big one.  If old packages are likely to be a
problem for you than you do *not* want to be using Debian.
Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) is a good alternative.

You also mention you had this problem six months ago with
'etch'.  That was before it was released as the 'stable'
distribution and you might simply have encountered a known
bug.  Try again now if you haven't since mid April.

--David