Hi I am a newbie to Linux, I looked over the reviews, and distrowatch, and Debians site, so for software built in this looks very good, for a student and for business apps, maths, graphs... I also have a bit of a science need.

I will test this on a 40 gig old Pentium 2. Will that work?

Looking at Debian 4.0, I think that is the latest.

For the software and review I prefer it to Ubuntu, and Cent OS.

Will Debian be supported in the long term, months, years?

Does Compiz work from installation?

Will I be able to receive business and science and advertising documents, looking at compatibility across the community?

And is it difficult to install, and fix if there is a problem?

Is it a slow or fast system?

Which distro competes with Debian for packages, applications?

Later I may want a laptop or portable hard driver version, with transfers of documents...

Thanks in advance.

I have been using Debian for the last three years....Down time has only been when I install new hardward...

It is not difficult to install with the new installer. and will run on a p2..as for Compiz, I dont use it but the P2 may be too slow for it as well as you may not have a compatible Video card.

It is definitly faster than Ubuntu, at least on my workstations...

that is my

Yes, but the amount of RAM will be critical to your experience. If you have less than 128megs of RAM, then the default GNOME desktop interface will be very sluggish. How much RAM does this computer have? You can tell how much RAM there when you turn it on; it shows a memory test on screen.

If you have between 32 and 128megs of RAM, you'll want to use a lightweight interface, like icewm-lite or fluxbox. We can help with installing that stuff if necessary.

If you have less than 32 megs of RAM, you more or less can't run an adequate GUI, and if you have less than 20 megs of RAM you probably can't even run the Debian installer.

Yes, Debian 4.0 is the latest official release. It's also known as Debian Etch. All branches of Debian start off as the unofficial Debian Testing release, with a name (Woody, Sarge, Etch, Lenny). When it is considered ready for release, it is given an official release number (3.0, 3.1, 4.0). Some people don't like the fact that Debian Stable tends to be a bit outdated, so they use Debian Testing instead.

In addition, there's also the Debian Unstable branch, also known as Debian Sid. Don't worry about the existence of this branch. This branch is sort of like a place to test package updates before they even go into Debian Testing.

Debian's long term support is excellent. There's no release schedule set in stone, but it's something like one release every three years. Support for a particular release continues for a few years after that, but most people running Debian Stable upgrade to the current Debian stable with no problems (this is in contrast to most other linux distributions).

NO. The Debian 4.0 release predates Compiz/Fusion. It takes some manual effort to get it to work. Although there are how-to instructions on how to do this, I tend to recommend against it.

If those documents are .pdf or TeX documents, yes. If they are Microsoft Word documents, yes...but they might look a little different in Open Office.

If they are Microsoft Powerpoint presentations, then essentially NO. For Powerpoint, you'll have to use Microsoft Powerpoint. You may be able to install Powerpoint in WINE, but I've never tried it.

If you don't know if you need Microsoft Powerpoint, then you don't need it. (You'd know if you did, because opening a Powerpoint will open up Microsoft Powerpoint.)

A popular alternative to Debian is Ubuntu. Ubuntu and Debian are related to each other, but it's a bit complicated to explain. Either can be a good choice. I prefer Debian Stable; the software packages are older than in Ubuntu, but there are fewer bugs and issues.

"Will Debian be supported in the long term, months, years?"
I can reply to that :
Debian will ever exist and be maintained by the Linux community, since it is the mother linux "ship"
If you spend time learning Debian, that's the greatest investiment in Linux/*NIX !

"I prefer Debian Stable; the software packages are older than in Ubuntu, but there are fewer bugs and issues."
I confirm, I also use Debian stable. Ubuntu is the most unstable distro I have ever seen, really, and the most bug - embedded distro ever lol but anyhow it exists for very very Newbies.

Happy Debian Tux

Thanks for your advice. I think I'll go for Debian Etch.

let us know how the installation goes....

There is cdroms here on debian.org:
http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/

If you would like more etch/stable packages, you may use the /etc/apt/sources.list
I hope all goes fine.
we are there if you have questions.


I usually use a net/internet install cdrom: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/...86-netinst.iso

If you have very very brand hardware, this is a "backported" (for brand new systems) here: http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/

I have been screwing with identical pursuits to you....

1) I figured that since I want to run Apache (LAMP stack) that Debian being the most respected of the Linuxes... (at least in my opinion which is newbie after all.... certainly BSD is worth considering as well though I have never even begaun to mess with BSD)... since Debian is the most respected, then that is the way to go for a serious long term Server.


BUT... I have been having great ptoblems with installs.... In particular GRUB. (I am instaling on P4 1.4 Gig speed. with two 75 gig harddrives and 512 meg memory.) I have windows on master drive and Linux on slave... I am wondering if that is part of problem there(does GRUB want to do its thing on master and giving me "error 21" whatever that is, because I am putting Linux on slave.

AND I keep hearing about Ubuntu.

"POLITICS" -
1) the more i read about Ubuntu the more I think this is going to be the stronger system for a few years.
That is there is apparently some 10 Million Dollar support fund that is not even being spent but only for emergencies in case the main charitable backer quits.
2) The birth of Ubuntu apparently took many of the Debian big shots with it. There was a "Debian Fork" that is what brought about birth of Ubuntu, and this has led to problems with innovations on Debian because some of the new stuff for Ubuntu is not working on Debian even though everyone expects it to.


I BLAME THE SHAME THE BUSH GROUP HAS BROUGHT TO THE U.S.
(BUT THIS IS ANOTHER STORY... HOWEVER JUST LOOK AT THE SUPPORT COUNTRIES FOR UBUNTU... SEEMS LIKE EVERYTHING IS LISTED EXCEPT THE US)
... another reason "politics" seems to be a factor here.

well I am not so sure about your ubuntu things. I would say that newbies use ubuntu to start, and move to more professional linux. Ubuntu is good to learn 2-3 months.
Concerning the grub 21, that's a problem with the grub and its location (some will reply more in details after)

Why could you not install teh gnome or kde linux debian, and tehn install lamp with apt-get or with the package installers? then u have something easy to start that works, and you can learn/ play at same time ...

I searched on grub error 21 and read a few things and confirmed what i suspected:
Because I installed Linux on the slave rather than the master of double drive system Grub installed into wrong drive.

I see a solution (right now) in that I took the two drives out and changed the jumpers so that the slave is now master and the master is slave (A TRUE KARMIC BALANCE)

------I still have not checked the Windows Install... I am hoping that since the master and slave are separated completely in that nothing on the linux harddrive is part of Windows and vice versa... that this means I have not screwed up the "lettering" of the Windows Drives so that Windows will not even boot. (I think there is a Partition Magic option to fix this if so... that is what started all these messes to begin with...I used to love partition magic... maybe it is a sign that i am becoming full linux guy in that PM is beginning to piss me off more and more)



So now the Debian install and Grub works... I have not tried Apache and Mysql yet but that will take much work and tuning.

I see comcast really does not like me using Linux... the auto-responder told me that my browser needed to be updated and showed me the choice of Mac or MS Windows... I was tempted to download the Firefox for Mac to see if it works on Debian but why open another can of worms.


It does this whenever I try to read my comcast email... ie load the comcast user homepage.

Some day I will worry about this for now i still use windows for comcast email i guess.


LASTLY I STILL BELIEVE THAT UBUNTU IS A VERY WORTHWHILE LINUX AND FROM THE THINGS I WAS READING IT MAY BE AS GOOD OR BETTER THAN DEBIAN AT SOME POINT (EVEN NOW)

That is, from what I was reading there was a big syphoning off of Debian development over to Ubuntu....

However Debian has been the most respected (at least from what this newbie can tell) version of "GNU" Linux for a long time.

Since I am a newbie I will play it safe and grow here(debian) for a while... (unless I get really pissed at something I have yet to discovery that annoys me about Debian)

THIS IS PRETTY AMUSING...GRUB WONT LET ME START WINDOWS... NOW THE ERROR IS THAT THE SPECIFIED DISK DOES NOT EXIST...


I THINK MAYBE IF I GO TO THE "JUST BOOT TIPS"
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=144294

OR THE GRUB MANUAL:
http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/man...l#Installation


i CAN FIX THIS... WOULD REALLY NOT LIKE TO RE-INSTALL WINDOWS....and then find out it hoses grub ha ha.========================================================================


OKAY I FIXED THIS..... I THOUGHT I WOULD CHECK THE BIOS ON THIS OLD DELL P4 1.4 MEG...


THE OTHER PRIMARY DISK WAS SET TO OFF (IE THIS I CHANGED FROM MASTER TO SLAVE ON THE DRIVE JUMPERS)... SO SINCE THE GRUB ERROR WAS THAT THE DISK DID NOT EXIST I TRIED CHANGING THE BIOS FROM "OFF" (WHICH WORKS IF ONLY RUNNING WINDOWS STILL BOTH DRIVES ARE VISIBLE) TO "AUTO"

NOW THE WINDOWS CAN SEE THE LINUX DRIVE (CANT READ IT CAUSE IT IS EXT3 (AKA REISER)

AND LINUX CAN SEE AND READ THE WINDOWS DRIVE.(hmmm this is not the way that old Mandrake used to let me look at widnows drives.. oh well i will get it sooner or later)


I think I can stop with the caps now this royal pain of GRUB (linux/windows)dual boot is over!!!!

In my toying computer, the cache is 512k, the base memory 64k, extended memory 228352k.

Which is the RAM?

I also have some cards, from another old computer, I left on the street.

Could they be RAM? What should it look like?

Actually I found this;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAM

Should I put the cards in the computer?

try to install the debian with kmuto backported cdrom that I gave u above

It's the extended memory plus the base memory, which pretty much always equals the extended memory (because base is so tiny in comparison). Base memory should be 640k, though.

Anyway, you probably have 256megs of RAM, of which 32megs is being used by on-board video. This leaves you with 224megs, which is plenty of RAM for running linux with a heavyweight desktop environment like KDE or GNOME.

You do not need to add any more RAM.

I dont recall this... and why if I have Debian and Grub(dual windows debian boot) working would I install again... Just so i can prove the master/slave dont need to be in that configuration (Linux master.. windows slave) .. dont really care.


I came to this thread late so maybe u were talking to someone else.... i will google kmuto just to see what it is.