[GLLUG] Re: cheap cd-rw drives

[Bruce Smith]

> > Q: why do (some) variations of liinux suck?
> > a: lets take debian for an example (feel free to flame me here). Debian has 
> 
> Not worth my breath or time of day, but thanks for the offer.
> 
> (BTW, I will presume you have never used Debian and most of the How-Tos
> you find on google were written for Debian systems...I'll just assume
> you are completely clueless about Debian...)

I'm a long time Redhat user, and most recently SuSE.

I've heard good things about Debian, and I've make a few attempts to try
Debian and never got very far.  In fact I've never got past the install.

The first time I tried, it started asking me stupid questions like what
IRQ certain hardware uses, I got pissed because I don't know that off
the top of my head (Redhat has detected that for years) and I gave up. 
Another time I got into some kind of a loop with the installer where I
kept going through the same set of screens.  And once I managed to get a
very minimal system installed, and couldn't get it to load any packages
off the CD's.  Every time I tried to install something it'd try to
download and install it off the internet.  Since I didn't want to spend
a couple days completing the install with my slow internet connect, I
gave up again.

I don't care if the installer looks pretty, but I'd like it to detect
hardware and work.  Text mode is fine, I don't need a GUI/X.  But it has
to be functional!

It's been a little while since my last attempt, so maybe the install
process has improved.  I heard something about a new/improved installer
that is still in beta.  It it still in beta?  Does it work?  If so, how
can I use it?  If I download the latest stable ISO images, will they
contain the new installer?  I would really like to try Debian again ...

 - BS