Hi everybody,
my first thread started quite differently...
I fucking hate Windows!!! (and Microsoft)
And not just because of that, I want Linux on my laptop, there are more reasons:
1-multitasking (read as, I'd like to listen to music while I'm writing:this is the third time I post a new thread, the first one disappeared when I pressed the button, the second one, too and I hope you'll read this).
2-political: about freedom of software, and of tools for doing things ( and 'cause in developing countries they'll use Linux as OS, for 99$ instead of 500$ asked from MS) (when windows 1.0 was being sold at 99$, but to americans...)
3-economical: I bought my pc with Xp in it, it cracked for some viruses (without me going to see hot babes), and if I hadn't had a friend with an illegal copy of it, I would have had to pay again for my 'product'
4-Steve Ballmer and his cocaine intake,or whichever drug he does...(I hardly manage to buy my own ciggies, I ain't paying for his habit ...)
Many others..

Ok.
I've read here and there, and in my opinion Debian is what I want (econo-political reasons come first).
I still don't know how to get it.
They say I should use Jig-do, but I haven't figured out how. The 1st time I downloaded it, I opened the jig-do lite.bat and it said somthing different from what I was expecting: a URL to download from.I can't remember what it said, but it agve me errors at each time I entered a URL So I read books about Linux and learnt a lot. About Linux after you got it. So I got Jig-do once more, now it says it doesn't recognise some 'sh' file. And still I don't know what to do.
Should I try BitTorrent? And if yes, as we're in 6 in the house with internet, and have a router, if I fix that IP (it works like eMule or I misenderstood?)thing can they stil use it?(Not that I care, but they'd find out and kill me...).
The funny(?) thing is that I live with three guys that study IT at university, but it's their first year and don't have a clue about Linux yet.

Ok, I'm sorry for my ignorance, please don't laugh at it. I might have posted this thread in the wrong place, too.
Maybe I should buy the cd, but I want to learn!

Thanks for your numerous answers in advance ('cause at least one dear soul is going to answer, right?)

im kinda confused with your post.. do you want to know how to download debian?
http://www.debian.org/distrib/

do you want the latest stable version? or the latest version? do you want the cd or dvd images? do you want a network installation (download the files as you install debian, requires only 1 cd as opposed to 14)?

Hi,
the latest cd stable version, I guess.
But if I choose the latest one (network-wise) does it install itself on the hard disk on its own? So I should already prepare a partition?
14 cd's???? Gosh! I thought It'd take me 5 of them!

I need a writing tool (open office, right?) and some graphic tools.
What's in all those cd's?

debian includes openOffice and GIMP (image editing) in the install.
for what CPU is this? 32bit or 64?

the netinstall doesnt support internal PCI and WLAN cards (As the site says), so if you have something but that it should work.

i think you should just test it out with the netinstall.. grab a CDRW and burn the image (found here, 180mb) boot the computer with it and see if it detects your network card and you can set it up. yes, youll need to partition it, you can do it while booting with the install cd.

if you have a DVD burner that of course would be a wise solution.
if you dont want debian and its 14 cds, try another distro, such as ubuntu (GNOME) or kubuntu (KDE) which are both based off of debian and very beginner friendly. k/ubuntu is 1 cd. once the base system is installed, the computer is restarted and it begins to download and install the other packages. there are also live CDs to test out without installing to the harddrive.. check some out

what network card do you have?

heres the list of .torrent files for i386:
14 CDs
2 DVDs

Ok.
i just downloaded it.
can you tell me the difference between this 108Mb version and the 14 cd's one? I mean, what's in it? Or what's in the other one?

Wow.
Thanks a lot.
I thought I would hardly get an answer, but you really made my day with it.
I have a 32 bit i guess (laptop toshiba m35x).

Do I have to do something about the IP?
I always get a low ID with eMule, because of the router i've been told. Does that affect my downloading time for those packets?

so you have a router? when you use your computer (with windows id assume) does the internet connection automatically connect? ie does the router use DHCP?

the netinstall is so you only need to download and burn 1 cd... when you boot with it and start installing (if the network portion is detected and setup properly), then it will download the rest of the packages and software.

Beanut,

Nadroj is right about this:

The netinstall CD is an .iso. You have to burn an image. You can boot from this CD. It will ask a few hundred questions. Then it installs. If you still have a working machine after the install, then the Debian package manager starts to download whatever you need and installs it. No need to download 14 CD's. On an average system, it is around 700 MB what you have to download to install a decent system.

You have noticed that I was a bit sarcastic about the Debian netinstall. There is nothing wrong with the Netinstall, the programmers did a great job. But I think for a newbie it is very difficult to install Debian the first time right. You don't have the faintest idea what those questions are about. Even if you choose "easy setup" mode, you might make the wrong choices and not get what you want.

My experience is that you must have worked with Debian for a few weeks, and if you then do an install, you'll be succesful.

Having said this, I still believe Debian is a great distribution. I have been using it for years. You just have to know what you talk about. My first installation I had to redo 4 times. All other installs went flawlessly after that.

You might be better off by trying a ready-made distribution first. Try (K)Ubuntu. (The "K" version is for KDE desktop. Recommended) Kubuntu is based on Debian. Once you gained some experience, you might perform a re-install and install Debian.
(I am an advocate of recommending newbies to install their first Linux a few times and learn from their mistakes. Others are strongly opposed to it)

And don't forget to check tuxmobile.org. The best source of information to see how compatible your laptop is and what tips & tricks have to be used to get it going with Linux.

jlinkels

Hi guys,
thanks to both of you, I'm very happy with your answers.
So if I got it right, the 108Mb connects itself (after inst)to the net and starts downloading, but this downloads go to some folders so I can copy 'em, I guess..

Yeah, I've read in a few forums that installing Debian it's a rather painful experience, but I also have read so many good reviews that I want tot give it a try (actually, not a try, I want to make it!!!!)

So, unless I leave an Xp partition, it might be days before I come up with some more idiot questions....

i'm a newbie, and had no problems installing the same debian network version.
Just let it do what it wants to and you'll be allright.
There is no need to copy any packages that it downloads, since it installs it's applications from these packages itself (so you don't have to do anything with them)
Let us know how you go