Slashdot Mirror
Download Anaconda for Debian
hsoom writes "Debian Planet is reporting that unofficial sarge-based ISOs using the Anaconda installer can be downloaded from here. The features developed so far include '...changed the code that installs software to use APT instead of RPM, removed Red Hat-specific configuration hooks, and written a new tool called picax that builds Anaconda-based installation CDs from a Debian repository'. However there are features that are not yet working and it is not recommended for use in a production environment."
One of the main 'comments' I get when I recommend Debian GNU/Linux to people, is 'Debian is difficult to install' - a fair comment, and this will be a move in the right direction.
Give it some time.
Knoppix is right now probably the easiest way to install Debian, via knx-hdinstall.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Don't worry, most of us do.
It might have something to do with the fact that its developers all use emacs, and that little flaw has worked its way into dselect.
I've found dselect is largely broken and will futz up your dependencies, etc. fairly quickly. Straight apt-get for me.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
use aptitude (console) or synaptic (gtk)
I'm amazed that more people don't know this. I used dselect for about a day, then quickly discovered apt+tasksel, then aptitude. Dselect is awful.
Amen to that!!.
Knoppix is becoming Debians default installer on x86 hardware. Its not just more fun than the conventional approach, but it feels safer, since you can SEE it working on your computer before installing for real.
One of the main 'comments' I get when I recommend Debian GNU/Linux to people, is 'Debian is difficult to install'
I think it can be argued that the Debian installer asks many questions that may not be easy to answer for a Linux newbie.
But, as you say, there is hope: I remember someone saying, a few years ago, that a RedHat had formatted their drives without clearly mentioning that it would be destructive (oops!). Today, Mandrake can be installed after just a few minutes worth of clicking "OK". It generally makes the right choices for the user, clearly shows what partitions will be created, and warns if it's about to blank an existing windows partition. If it finds some unsupported hardware, it mentions what it knows about it, so that the user can simply ask their local guru for help.
I think it's no exaggeration to say that someone who already installed Windows can safely install e.g. a Mandrake.
Serously, the anaconda site will be in for a very heavy slahsdoting. They have links to two isos on the page that slashdot links to. How many will click on those links? how many will be disapointed? The filesisze are BTW: sarge-2003-11-25-bin1.iso 688,074,752 bytes sarge-2003-11-25-bin2.iso 42,174,464 bytes ie, about 720 Megabytes in total. I would consider putting up a torrent link myself, but I don't have a large enough pipe to download those files before the site (inevetably) goes down.
Perhaps what I should have said instead was "text-based interface".
(Review of The Art of UNIX Programming )
Danny.
I have written over 900 book reviews
I can understand some people saying Debian, in it's current state is difficult to install.
But I cringe when I hear that from a fellow computer person. I mean honestly, just because it's not using framebuffer and a mouse on install?
Well, dselect could be friendlier: it's not so much that it's text based, but that the interface itself is alien to most people. It's a good interface, like vi is a good interface: but it's not quick and easy to pick up, and if you skip past the instructions, you're in trouble.
But that's not the worst thing about the Debian install. It's been proved that auto-detecting hardware can be done in Linux, yet to install Woody I needed to manually specify an Ethernet driver and select an appropriate X server. That's really not good enough, and would scupper a lot of people, computer professionals or not.
This may be fixed in Sarge: someone reply and tell me.
You hit the nail on the head with your last line. The problem is that Debian supports many architectures (I think it's even more architectures than XFree supports!), so there is a lot of work to be done to build an installer.
There's a new installer in the works right now (it's in Beta). Don't know much about it though.
Well. Keep in mind that the Woody installer is several years old now.
That seems like a serious problem in itself to me!
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Re-read your instructions from the perspective of an ordinary user.
1. Why do I have to hit Alt-F2? Why not a Menu option?
2. The fact that you don't know if it's Ctrl-Alt-F2 or Alt-F2 or if it changes shows a big usability problem right there.
3. Again, typing knx-hdinstall seems completely non-obvious. I'm sure I'd quickly figure it out by reading some docs or something, but why do I need to read some docs or google to figure that out?
Note: I've never used Knoppix, so maybe there are menu options, but those instructions aren't that easy, IMO.
1. Agreed. There should be a 'Install' icon, with a little computer icon, a la InstallShield on Windows.
2. I've not used it for a while, which is why I forget which it was.
3. See Point 1.
Like I said though, Knoppix is pretty simple. A readme file on the desktop could handle this for now, at least.
Join the Free Software Foundation
Because there's a lot of untapped value there. When Debian is still using ghostscript 6, and thousands of other obselete packages, you have to sacrifice all the advances made in the last several years if you want to run Debian.
Testing/Sid isn't an option for production, since the Debian people won't commit to providing security fixes in any timely manner for those versions.
I think Red Hat used to have it right. A distro should be updated in a major way about once every year-18 months. Ideally you'd want to support the current version, and the immediate previous major version.
It worked great, I don't know why RH had to fuck it up.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Comment removed based on user account deletion