[Glastonbury] ive become debbied

[Kelvin McNulty]

Thanks for reply...

On Friday 24 September 2004 23:26, tim hall wrote:
> Last Friday 24 September 2004 22:39, Martin Wheeler was like:
> > On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Kelvin McNulty wrote:
> > > Does Debian install itself like SuSE does? or do you still have to make
> > > a list of all the hardware first?
> >
> > Depends.
> >
> > If you've got the all-singing, all-dancing new installer -- yes.
> > In about 6 key-clicks.  (Says Andy.  Of course, he could be lying.
> > But as he is trained in law, it's difficult for him to distinguish
> > between outright mendicity and creative use of language.  Sigh.)

Sounds promising to me....

>
> Is that like a more creative version of mendacity then ?;-]
>
> I've been using the modified Sarge installer that AGNULA uses, it's a
> little over simplified for my tastes, but basically does autodetect your
> hardware in the majority of cases and does the job in less than an hour
> with the minimum of user interference. It still doesn't use X, which is a
> Good Thing IMO. I know people love to moan about the Debian installer, I
> don't understand why, I suspect people equate pretty graphics with ease of
> use.

I'm quite OK with not using X...

>
> Installing Debian is (now) easy. Personally I find configuring things like
> CUPS and dial-up modems a _lot_ more trouble in comparison. 

I managed both of these on SuSE, dial up was a bit of a fiddle, but I 
eventually figured it out using wvdial with a wvdial.conf in /etc and sudo to 
get it going without having to be superuser... I have found how to get on 
broadband using a router with HTTP GUI control panel too.,.. and there is a 
company called thirdheight.com who do a broadband PCI modem with a Linux 
handler...

> The
> difficulties lie only if your hardware relies on non-free drivers, like
> nvidia graphics and and certain sound cards. I think the arguments about
> Debian's lack of user-friendliness may already be a thing of the past.
>
> If you really need to interface with a lot of proprietary solutions then
> you may still find Debian frustrating. IMO this is also a Good Thing. ;-)

It may be that SuSE has proprietory drivers...

>
> > Otherwise no.   :-)
> >
> > [And btw -- it's *always* advisable to have a list of your hardware to
> > hand, *whatever* distribution you're installing.]

Well, I think I will look for a scrap machine to try it on - have you got any 
at the moment, Alistair?

> >
> > Andy -- how do we get Kelvin a copy of the new installer version?
> > One that comes with cast-iron guarantees not to blow up his screen or
> > rape his hamster?
>
> Well, I was, of course going to recommend my hobby-horse distro AGNULA, but
> I looked in the small print of the Gerbil Protection Licence and noticed
> the 'except Kelvin' clause, so no promises. (sorry, it's been a hard day)
>
> AGNULA/DeMuDi comes on a single CD and installs a basic GNOME or fluxbox
> environment. (That means when you finally reboot after installing all the
> packages you want X actually works first time, or thereabouts, usually) -
> You don't have to install all the DeMuDi packages and could easily apt-get
> anything else you wanted from the Sarge repositories. Of course I would say
> that, I don't have a lot of experience of other installers to compare it
> with. Never felt the need to try them and let's face it, the great thing
> about Debian is you only ever have to install it once. :-)

Hey! Sounds good... genuiinely immortal software...

>
> If they fix the AGNULA server before Wednesday I'll download and burn one.
>
> My extremely biased opinion.
>
> tim hall

I do remember being impressed by Martin's description of how easy it is to use 
apt-get...

Kelvin
also figuring out openoffice macros...