Debian graphic installer! need info
 

I heard a loooong time ago that sarge debian had a new installer... a graphical one... is it loaded by default when installing for first time??

The thing is I have a little server, mail and apache... nothing special i have it just to learn, and i want to go from fedora to debian, cuz i heard debian its more secure, what would you guys? good change?? or makes no difference??

The graphical installer is only on Etch, not Sarge. Etch is what you should be installing anyway. At the boot prompt, type "installgui" ... I think. I never have used it. The ncurses installer is the same thing ... without the mouse.

I would not guarantee you that Debian is more secure than Fedora ... Lots of things go into security besides which distro you install. It may be easier to find documentation on Debian Security than Fedora, I don't know.

"installgui" it is
 

Or "expertgui", which gives you a few more options.

Their new graphical installer isn't much different than the text-based installer (but it sure is a lot more pink!).

You can get CD images of the soon-to-be-stable Debian Etch here (note that there's "CD 1" images that will install KDE or Xfce rather than the default GNOME). And there's an interesting review of RC1 here.

The text based Debian installer is really quite solid. Having been bitten many times by Mr Gates' GUI's, I personally really find comfort in the stability and reliability of text based systems.

In my opinion, once you go text you won't go back :)

I thought the same until I tried the GUI, I find it very nice.

But it is a bit too pink yeah :)

So lets wrap this one out... Theres no promise of better security in debian than in fedora, but documentation is easier to find for debian.

And graphical installer is... well, pink!... am i right??

First, I've not used Fedora. The following is for Debian.

Security!! There is plenty of info on security for Debian. But your security will depend on what version you install. If you install Sarge/stable you get up to date security updates daily/weekly. Since etch/Testing is constantly changing, the security updates are late or not at all depending on what the security problem was. It might be fixed in the next version of a program as it is tested and reinstalled so no new security update is necessary. However you can include in your menu.lst file(Debian's software location list for updating) a line which will pull the stable security updates as they come out but they may not be effective if you are running etch/Testing. Hope I've made myself clear.

I am running etch/Testing and have not had security problems tho, w. firewalls on each box and a firewall on my router as well. But I also don't go places other's might so....

As to the graphic installer vs the text. I would go text. When I set up this box w. etch/Testing I started using the text, cleared that out and tried the graphic, too. The graphic did not have a notice I needed that the text installer did for me to pick something, I forget what, so I went back to the text installer and reinstalled it just fine. And both take about the same amount of time. And as someone said you can go expert install too and get all kinds of choices w. text. I looked at it and found I did not need it so just used the standard text installer. And I'm a noob to a great degree.

Hope that helps. I love Debian. But others love Fedora. You are probably doing the right thing to set up a "play" box to just mess around w. both of them to see which one you might like best. But I did some research on both before I setlled on Debian so did not feel a need to do the same. The long and short of it is I just like Debian better. I like the organization they have and their output. But I know Fedora/RedHat is a very well liked and respected distro too. Both of them are used in enterprise areas heavily.

Whit

Nice explanation, except for this part which is blatantly untrue. I believe that up until a year or two ago, there may have been some validity to that statement, but Testing now has it's own security team and repository, and security updates are handled on pretty much the same schedule as Sarge. Just make sure you include the following lines in your sources.list file:

Hey Rick,
Thanks for the correction. I was unaware that this new security team had been organized and was/is operating. I'm gonna' have to edit my sources.list file to update it. But, I looked at the Debian.org site to see just what was up and in order for folks to be up on what is happening w. Debian Testing Security they can check this Faq:

http://www.debian.org/security/faq#testing

And there is more here:

http://secure-testing-master.debian.net/


Anyway, thanks Rick for correcting my info. I am always ready to learn and too, always make sure I buy all my pencils w. erasures just so I don't get in trouble long term. :)

Still love Debian. And they're always just gettin' better. ;)

Whit

This is undeniable. Debian users are such a smug group. I wonder why that is.

Originally posted by rickh:
Probably because Debian is so often copied when trotting out new distros (eg Ubuntu) but we're using the original (and best IMO).

Just putting in my :twocents:

If you install a server, why would you want the insecurity of a GUI in the first place? (yes, I know it's only for installation, but still...) And as mentioned before: apparently the GUI version doesn't include all dependencies, for some reason or another...

As for the Fedora vs Debian thingy: each distro has it's own intended audience and serves them well. With the introduction of SELinux (starting in Fedora (Core 3 or 4), nonetheless!) it doesn't really matter which distro you choose. Fact is, that w/o SELinux Debian is a little safer by default when first installed, but as said: SELinux removed that advantage.