Originally Posted by Dutch Master

Debian, or better: the Linux kernel, comes standard with a whole lot of drivers included. As mentioned before, only exotic stuff (like bluetooth, obscure wireless chipsets et all) require additional drivers to be installed separately. My advise would be to proceed as you planned and have the installer do the work for you. No need to worry, unless you have some very exotic essential stuff in your machine, any missing drivers are no showstoppers at all. You didn't mention what hardware you use, but as it's a Win-7 machine it'll be pretty modern. I doubt you'd find anything essential missing that would cause the installation to abort or bork your system.

Tip: after you installed Debian from the first DVD, bring your machine into the office and connect it to the network (ask permission if you value your job!) then update the entire system via the faster network. The first update is the biggest, after that, run the update tool daily, to keep yout data allowance in check...

Best of luck! (and you know where to get answers if something goes wrong )

Originally Posted by Martial-law

So is it possible to install the OS first and thereafter install the firmware and non-free codecs from Debian Multimedia?

Originally Posted by z06gal

Martial,

You might give SolusOs a look. It really is a nicely done distro and the install is straightforward. There is an install video on youtube along with reviews if you are interested


http://solusos.com/

Originally Posted by Luccas

Good morning,


Debian was my second distro after Ubuntu and although nowadays I use Slackware, Debian is still my second distro. It is very easy to install and use. Even the configuration file for the repositories is very easy to configure. There is a vast online repository, with more than 20 thousand stable softwares. It's very, very nice and friendly. You'll like it.

Download a LiveCD as recommended above and test it. In the official website there is a lot of information and tutorial. Go ahead! :-)


[]'s!

Originally Posted by 273

The multimedia codecs are not needed at al for an install, you add the repository for them after install then install them using a package manager (you can find instructions how to do this and we can guide you). If your modem needs firmware though (I've not used a modem in years so I don't know) then you may need to find out what that is and download it at work, obviously.
As was suggested above, the best thing to do would be use a live disc to check what works.

Originally Posted by 273

It is probably easier, in my opinion, to just use the live CD to check that everything works then actually install using the DVD[s]. As far as I know (and I'm sure others will correct) the only DVD you need is the first, though since your internet connection is not good at home it would not hurt to have the others as it would mean you could install more software without using your internet connection.
Edit: To be clear, with the live CD Debian runs from the CD and is not installed on your hard drive. This is safer since it leaves your normal OS in tact.

Originally Posted by Martial-law

So this seems to be the best approach. Is it possible to install the core OS with Live CD and thereafter add the rest of the software from the DVDs?

Originally Posted by Martial-law

If I install Xfce and not Gnome 2, would I be able to run Grome applications? Is that possible? Also is it possible to keep 3 desktop environments at a time like Gnome, Kde and Xfce?

Originally Posted by Martial-law

So this seems to be the best approach. Is it possible to install the core OS with Live CD and thereafter add the rest of the software from the DVDs?

Originally Posted by odiseo77

Since you have a slow internet connection at home, I would also suggest to download the first couple of DVDs at work, especially if you plan to install several DEs (and yes, it is completely possible to install several DEs on a single Debian install). And regarding the compatibility between the live CD and the install DVDs/CDs, I'm not sure since I have never used the live CD, but I would suggest to install directly from the install DVDs to avoid any possible issues.

Originally Posted by Randicus Draco Albus

You can put as many desktop environments on your computer as you want to. You set one as the default and can choose which one to use during log-in. Although, the more DEs that are installed, the more hard-drive space that is used and redundancy of applications. For example, if there are three DEs, there will be three file managers, two or three disc burners, at least two internet browsers, et cetera.

Any DE can use applications from other DEs. However, it does require also installing dependencies.

If you have difficulty understanding the guides, there are several threads on the Debian forum describing installing firmware. I have never had to do it, but it looks straight-forward. Down-load and install. Again, unless you require a wireless connection for installation, there should not be any problems.

I also would not bother with extra CDs. DVD1 has everything needed to set up the system and more. After that, up-dates are usually small. They usually take two to ten minutes with my very slow internet connection.

Originally Posted by Martial-law

Anyway, I feel http://www.linuxquestions.org has some best people as its members and it is the best place indeed to ask questions about Linux, and in some cases its an even better place to ask questions than the distro's own forums!