after poking around debian.com for a while, i came to the downloads section and decided to grab the debain iso's that i need with bittorent. after following this link: http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/3.1_r0a/i386/bt-cd/ , i see about 16 different iso files, just for i386. i see the same crazy file list from when i try a direct download from one of the mirrors, too:
http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/dis...a/i386/iso-cd/ . i have no idea which one to download. i dont need all of the binary ones do i? there's no way i'm burning that many cd's

If you have a fast connection then the best way to go is to use the Debian Installer . Have a read of the sticky at the top of this forum to find out what to do next. This method allows you to install only what you need/want and therefore makes a very good quick system with no bloat.

you should just get the one that says "netinst" (last one in list) to do a net install.

if you don't have a lot of bandwidth to net install everything and you just want to get the CDs, the first 2 are basically all you'll need for a working system with all the usual packages of most distros. http://www.us.debian.org/CD/faq/#which-cd there's probably a doc somewhere telling what's on what CD if you have any specific requirements.

so... whats on the other 12 cds? extra software packages? thats a lot of stuff

There are some 16 000 debian packages so they would occupy a number of cd's.

and the windoze people complain there's no software for linux.

If you decide to go with the above suggestions (which I also recommend), then take a look at my post in another thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=367518

Even if you prefer some other choices instead of the ones I suggest, you can follow the general order: At first install just the base system, then install x-window-system and then all the other stuff you need.

And if you use aptitude to install packages, then aptitude will keep a list of the packages you've installed, and if you decide to remove some packages, aptitude will automatically remove all the unneeded dependencies that would otherwise be left to your system after removing packages (but it won't remove any dependencies that other installed packages need ).

thanks for the tip

I would just go with the netinstall CD of Debian 3.1, it is a small download, I think a bit under 200 MB. You will boot from that and then install a base system. Then you will connect to the Internet and download the programs you want. Just select desktop install, it will be about a 1.3 GB installation.
Once you're up and running you can use Synaptic to download as many programs as you want.
I just noticed today that there was a new version of Fire Fox available, I just installed it.