The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Downloading Linux

Hi:

I would like to download a Debian distribution of Linux.

The link for download is at http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/

However I do not know what to downlad. The instructions are sparse.

Thanks,

jan

Jan
Saturday, November 8, 2003

I have found an easier to understand site for a Mandrake Linux distribution - http://www.mandrakelinux.com/en/ftp.php3

Would I have to download all the files listed

Thanks,

jan

Jan
Saturday, November 8, 2003

try
http://www.knoppix.net/
haven't used it myself but it has excellent reviews--a bootable linux CD. it is based on the debian distro.

mb
Saturday, November 8, 2003

btw, the instructions for 'normal' debian are here:
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual

you probably have an Intel x86.

i think there's another set of instructions somewhere else too.

mb
Saturday, November 8, 2003

In fact if you like Knoppix, you can install it to your hard drive here are instructions. http://bofh.be/clusterknoppix/knx-install.htm

Mike
Saturday, November 8, 2003

Try one of the debian-based distrubtions instead of just debian. They are easier to install, come with a nice setup, and are otherwise pure debian.

I recommend Libranet which you can download from http://www.libranet.com/

Also, I believe that Lycoris desktop/lx is also debian based. http://www.lycoris.com/products/desktoplx/ -- you can download it from linuxiso.org

Almost Anonymous
Saturday, November 8, 2003

I believe debian has an irc channel on openprojects.net (or whatever they've been renamed to nowadays). You could ask there.

Keep in mind that debian doesn't *want* you to download it. They want you to *install* it. If you download it, you're pulling down over 10,000 packages that you will likely not use or install. They have a lot available, and that bandwidth costs them alot to serve up ISOs. Why not download one of the net install images? Those were pretty easy to find and reliable last time I checked, particularly if you can boot off of a CD-ROM drive.

Mike Swieton
Saturday, November 8, 2003

Fedora Linux seems kinda interesting. The bit torrent waves for it is currently pretty strong. Despite my ISP's (istop.com) throttling*, the 3-disc iso came to my hard drive pretty quick.

* Full blast UL/DLs between noon to midnight are rejected/throttled now.

Li-fan Chen
Sunday, November 9, 2003

As Li-Fan says you want to download an ISO image. then burn onto a CD and install (aftr printing out the install guide if you only have one computer).

If you don't have broadband then try and get a DVD shipped. Shouldn't cost much more than postage. In the UK you get loads of free software from the computer mags.

Also, unless you are 100% committed to Debian, consider Mandrake.

Stephen Jones
Sunday, November 9, 2003

http://www.linuxcentral.com/ is one of many sites that sell distro CD sets for under $10. Try Debian, Fedora (nee Redhat) or Mandrake. In fact, when I was first playing around with Linux, I bought four different distros, and tried installing each one until I found one that installed without problems. That overcame a lot of my early frustration with Linux, which was a sort of "off by one" problem--this one didn't have a modem driver, this one didn't like my monitor, etc.

Justin Johnson
Sunday, November 9, 2003

Jan - I have always used http://linuxiso.org and in fact just downloaded Debian a few weeks ago.

m
Sunday, November 9, 2003

The biggest problem you're going to find with Debian is that it's months and months behind the curve, if you stick with the stable distribution.

In some cases, that means no newer hardware. For example, my motherboard has a Silicon Images Serial ATA controller, off of which I've hung 2 SATA drives. It requires kernel 2.4.21 or later to work, which will be in Debian in 9-12 months, I'd guess.

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Monday, November 10, 2003

If you're looking for something Unix-like to download and install, and you want the least complexity, try FreeBSD.

I've tried Debian and RedHat, and maybe I'm dense, but I can never figure out what RedHat files I need to download, and Debian fails to install some packages (assuming you can even figure out what the packages ARE).

OTOH, FreeBSD gives you a few simple options beyond the base set:
- compiler tools
- X11R6
- source code
- text processing tools

Just pick what you want from no more than a dozen choices, and everything you reasonably need will be installed. The ports collection lets you customize from there.

Much easier than the mainstream Linux distros.

David Jones
Monday, November 10, 2003

David, it is really hard to get easier than most Linux distros. You can just use the installter (isn't it called Drak with Mandrake) and simply tick all the default options. You still have to put in your name and one or two more details for networking, that's all.

If you try to download files, and then decide what to install, you're asking for trouble.

It's like accessing the i386 folder for Windows, and having to decide which files you need, instead of following the setup routine.

Stephen Jones
Monday, November 10, 2003

Stephen, I am guessing what David means is long term maintainability. I love FreeBSD because there is a place for everything and everything in its place. They are religious about separating system "out of the box" stuff from the crud you install. Their installer mechanism is better than Debians which says a lot I think.

I agree, Linux distro's can be very easy to install as point and click (something debian and FreeBSD is not), but FreeBSD just feels right when running it for the long haul. When dealing with a thousand little tools in Unix, it is nice to have some consistency in how they install.

m
Monday, November 10, 2003