When you install Debian, it will install over Fedora Core, and give you a nice, clean, fresh system.

By default, Gnome is installed with the Netinstall CD, but you can install KDE in a few minutes using "aptitude install kde". You will be prompted if you want to use the KDM or GDM login manager (chose whichever). When you select either KDE or Gnome in the sessions menu on the login screen, you will be prompted if you want to make it the default.

Debian will support LVM, but I am not sure how to set it up. It shouldn't be too hard though. See Here.

As for you video card, I suggest that you install the drivers provided by Nvidia. Once your system is up and running, edit /etc/apt/sources.list. At the end of the line referring to the official repository, add the words "non-free" and "contrib". Like this:
Then run "aptitude update" and then install the Nvidia drivers using
Reboot, and it should work.

I hope this helps
--Ian

as opposed to a fresh installation wiping all the data off my drive (which would take several hours to restore), right?

I had an upgrade installation in mind. Is this possible from Fedora Core?

Other than that, the rest you describe looks easy enough.

thanks

with what I had in mind, so I did a more or less default install instead and plan to reload /home and my VMware Server vmdks... and reinstall what I really have to have.

Hopefully, I'll be booting to an actual dsektop in a few hours with the new motherboard.

thanks

I've got a Debian desktop running, and I'm downloading KDE right now. This looks like the right move so far.

Thanks, everyone.

I started by installing all the software upgrades the upgrade manager said I should.

I then installed KDE, selected kdm as a window manager, rebooted, and found myself at a console login. . . and found to my shock that the Xserver was down because Xorg had been removed.

Well, aptitude install xorg promptly reinstalled it, when I rebooted. . . back in KDE. But it was a bad few minutes I spent wondering if Debian was exactly the right choice.

Is that sort of thing normal? Is there anything I have to keep an eye on when I try installing / removing things? Any other Debian "gotchas" anyone would like to tell me about?

Thanks. It is nice to be able to actually use my hardware upgrade at last.

When you install programs using aptitude or apt-get, always check the output carefully. It always tells you what new programs it is removing, and what it is installing.

This is just a side effect of dependency management - sometimes packages are incompatible with each other. Just be careful, and you won't run into any problems.

Glad you got it all working though

--Ian

though I now have nvidia-glx running.

When I shut down the computer, I get the message "can't deactivate with 2 open logic volumes"... I want to figure out what to do about this before I load everything else.

This is getting well beyond my knowledge. Can I suggest that you start a new thread about this specific problem?

Does your computer automatically shut down, or does it hand at this message?

--Ian

It shuts down. But I don't want the filesystem to turn to crap. . . so I'll post a new thread when I finish getting VMWare server running.

So I posted it to Linux - Software

In the meantime, I've got VMware Server running and the SAMBA connection between it and my personal files working. . . i.e. my major functionality is now up and running.

Not bad for about a day and a half as a Debian n00b.