[Discuss] debian

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2007-03-01 13:01-0700 David Frey wrote:

> You should give aptitude a try.  Once you get the hang of it, it's a lot
> easier than managing packages with apt-get.

Peter, I have never tried aptitude so I won't knock it, but I generally
prefer the command line (10 fingers have much more bandwidth than a mouse),
and for the command-line case (which I think you might prefer as well),
apt-cache and apt-file give you all the search functionality you need to
supplement apt-get.

To reinforce what others have said, a good strategy is to use the first CD
to get started.  That will have all the basics and a lot more. (My last
couple of Debian installs I used the much smaller mini-iso to get started
rather than the full ISO of the first CD.) Install anything else you need
from the net using apt-get.  You can also look at tasksel results (run in a
mode that doesn't actually install anything) to find the names of
convenience packages that are worth installing since they suck in lots of
related packages. For example,

irwin at chickadee> tasksel --list-tasks
u desktop       Desktop environment
i web-server    Web server
u print-server  Print server
u dns-server    DNS server
u file-server   File server
u mail-server   Mail server
u database-server       SQL database

irwin at chickadee> tasksel --task-packages desktop
fortune-mod
gdm
gimp
gnome
gnome-desktop-environment
kde
kde-core
kdeadmin
kdeartwork
kdegraphics
kdemultimedia
kdenetwork
kdepim
kdeutils
menu
mozilla-browser
mozilla-psm
myspell-en-gb
myspell-en-us
openoffice.org-bin
x-window-system-core
xscreensaver

Be sure to pick kde and avoid gnome.  (Just want to be sure people are
reading this far.... :-) )

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the Yorick front-end to PLplot (yplot.sf.net); the
Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
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