Linked by Og Maciel on Tue 25th Jan 2005 20:24 UTC
In my never ending search for the ultimate challenge, I decided to remove Gentoo Linux from my trusty laptop and install something else that wasn't as resource starving. Thus, Debian was selected.
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There is lots of off-topic discussion in this thread and everyone advertising their favourite distros, as usual.
Luis Lima wrote recently a similar, although more detailed, Debian installation guide using net-installer-rc2 http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=9271 They both chose the "expert" installation option, although the "linux26" option is easier and will work for most users. The laptop after-installation tweaks from Anonymous (IP: ---.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com) sound quite good and I've rarely seen them in this kind of howto's. The writer of the present article, Og Maciel promises to guide new Debian users with more after-installation configurations in further articles and that will be most welcome reading.
Personally I find that installing the base system with the new Sarge net-installer (rc-2) is quite easy. The difficult part begins when you start configuring your system and choosing the kind of desktop software you need. Well, at least Debian has lots of packages to choose from and the packages management frontends -- apt-get, aptitude, synaptic, etc -- are better than in any other distribution, IMO.
Also Debian offers many command line tools, some with ncurses or GUI frontends, that require considerable knowledge of the Debian GNU/Linux system. How to ensure that you don't install buggy packages (apt-listbugs, apt-listchanges), how to load kernel modules (modprobe, modconf) how to configure the default applications (update-alternatives), how to re-run some post-installation scripts for important packages (dpkg-reconfigure, gkdebconf), how to manage services (invoke-rc.d, update-rc.d, rcconf, sysvconfig), etc, etc.
In addition, setting up a Debian desktop system requires often editing config files with a text editor, reading man pages and documentation in /usr/share/doc and sometimes doing google searches and asking questions in help forums. But still I don't think that Debian is among the most difficult GNU/Linux distros. It is a very popular distro with many users and help is always available when you get stuck trying to accomplish some task.
Besides, Debian's age shows in maturity -- the whole system is very clearly organized and Debian developers have added post-install scripts and sane defaults to many packages that make the apps often ready to be used right after installation, which is not always the case with some less mature distros or operating systems. Also it is made easy for normal users to participate in developing Debian by filing bug reports, which are always well received. The large number of system developers and package maintainers work really hard to fix all reported bugs.