Debian.....?

[Gro$$]

Ok so I've been using Red Hat (both 8 and 9) but I lost it cause my hard drive had to be replaced due to some errors. Now that I have a new drive I'm thinking about going to Debian, because I've heard some good things about it. Just wondering what you all think about Debian. I like rpms and apt-get, even though compiling from source makes the program run better. Also I'm looking to use cd-burner, rip dvds (please no debating over if thats legal or not), rip cd's to mp3, (stuff like xmms, xcdroast, grip, dvd::rip) all of which I believe I can run with debian, but I'm not sure. But what do you think?

Thanks in advance for your input,

-Gro$$

[ven0m]

You can do everything in Debian that you can in Redhat. Debian is a good advanced learning distro, as you have to do alot of things manually. Just don't expect to have everything working in under 2 hours, it took 3 days to get everything working on my laptop, also it doesn't have all the bleeding edge apps that some of the other distro's have, but if that doesn't bother you give it a try.

[Vm.]

I tried to get Debian working several times. But I finally succeeded this time. It took me about a week to get the X server up. The reward was worth the effort. :) Right now, I am using Debian 3.0 and I also run RHL9 and WinXP Home Edition. What I have to say is this... if such a newbie as myself could install and run debian, anybody can. ;)

[o0zi]

It's probably easier to get Knoppix and then install it to hard disk, and then you have basically a Debian system with your hardware auto-configured. Be warned though, Knoppix is quite bulky (to put it mildly), so it will need some tuning and trimming.

[Hayl]

OR download the progeny installer.

http://hackers.progeny.com/pgi/

it's a red hat / mandrake style graphical installer that will autodetect your hardware and set up X for you.

you can either use it to get a base system and apt-get the rest on your own, or it will run the gtk apt tool and allow you to select what you want.

1 ISO is all you need from here: http://archive.progeny.com/progeny/pgi/

after the install, all you need to do is edit /etc/apt/source.list by removing the progeny soruces and replacing them with debin sources (available at: http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-basico.en.html#s-sources.list)

[GaryJones32]

Debian is great..
Very very stable and fast but not very up to date because of the time involved in testing and working out the kinks.
Debian is also very cool because there is no corperation and no one is selling anything(no profit motive).
you build the system from the core just like the compiled distros
and in my opinion if you recompile and optimize the kernel you end up with all the speed of a compiled system anyway..
I have yet to see any hard evidence that compiling other than the kernel with optimizations helps that much unless you have special needs and you can of course compile and configure anything on debian yourself you want anyway.
If hardware detection and installation is a problem then there is a for-cost debian distro that ads nothing more that a better installer and an extra administration tool and takes the more adventuresome install options as default (a good thing) called
Libranet -- only drag is it installs alot of stuff -- but it's good stuff --
basically the best of the vast array of deb packages. Then you just maintain it just like any debian installation.
apt is a dream came true !

[Gro$$]

Thanks for all the input. I think I'll take the dive and maybe even use progeny. It makes installation sound much easier. But I'll see. Thanks again. And I hope you all can help me when I have problems....cause I know I will. And I don't mind spending time to get stuff running. It makes me feel better when I solve my own problems. Later.

-Gro$$