Major New Features in Debian Etch

Klaidas writes "Linux.com reports that the third beta of Debian Etch installer (released August 11, 2006) has some major new features, which might make this version of Debian the easiest to install. According to the original announcement, we will now be able to install using a graphical user interface on i386 and amd64 platforms. We will also be able to set up encrypted partitions during installation. Debian Etch is scheduled to be released on December 2006"

The Brits may have a problem.

[8127972]

"We will also be able to set up encrypted partitions during installation. "

Isn't this a potential non-starter under the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA)?

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/15/165 9233 [slashdot.org]

Re:Graphical Install For Debian?!? Bah!!

[SamSim]

And for those of you who are noobs, here is how to install Linux on a dead badger [everything2.com].

Re:Major New Features

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not a major new feature.

I agree with you but probably for different reasons. I've been using Debian for two years now and I think their regular installer was very user-friendly and easy to operate - and I'm not particularly smart or linux savvy either - so, personally I would have preferred that the project spent their time on something else especially since the installation is run only once.

Re:Install is (1 of) Linux's biggest problem(s)

[xiao_haozi]

I agree with you. But (I think) what the poster was referring to may have been a more general reference to linux os installs. Yes, there is the ease of Ubuntu which is far easier than most windows os installs in my opinion. But there can also be the more comlex (but not always) installs of slack or vector, etc. For someone who has done partitioning etc, then this is no biggie. But for someone who is a non-power user or not for computer saavy then they may not even understand partitioning let alone installing without a 100% gui base. But overall, I think linux has grown exponentially in expanding its ease of to an audience that now encompasses just about everyone. And with more and more package management systems available with gui bases this is making things even easier than ever. Thats just MHO.

Re:My favorite installer...

[Anonymous Coward]

DING DING DING, WE HAVE A WINNER.

My mother, grandmother, neighbors, co-workers, and non-technical friends still can't slap an install disk for Windows or OSX in to their home computer without sweating, cursing, and praying. They still don't know how to find and install drivers that windows doesn't ship with, and they sure as HELL don't have the patience to do all of that as routinely as it needs to happen on windows.

As a rule I format my Windows desktop once a year or more after regular use. The typical user, with their tendency to click [Yes] to every piece of spy/mal/shitware on the internet should probably be formatting every 6 months. But they don't, even with how simple the installs are, because they're intimidated even by Windows' "easy" install. (F6 to install drivers the moment the installer starts, and have the driver on a floppy. Still. On XP. When a lot of XP machines ship with no floppy. Anybody like that part?)

Even Mac users tend to sweat and curse when you tell them to do an install that wipes the drive, and that's saying something. The OSX installer is dead simple, and it will pretty much always have drivers for all the base system hardware, yet Mac users still sweat it.

Let's face it, easy GUI installers, while nice, will not bring people over to linux. It's not why they choose Windows to begin with. Let's say the reasons all together now:

"It's what I use at work"
"Microsoft Office support"
"It came with the computer"
"I need Internet Explorer"
"I'm familiar with it and don't want to learn a new system"
"It runs the software I use without any hassle"

Nowhere in the list for Joe Q. Public is "That old text based installer is the staleness. GUI installers are the new freshness, get with the times linux!"

Debian might win over a couple Windows server administrators looking to dabble in linux with this, but that's about it.

Easy Debian installation is now a catch-up game

[timothy]

I'm really glad to see the official Debian project making good moves on installation; though people gripe about the focus placed on installation ("How many times do you install a frickin' OS?" goes the refrain), it really is important. People who might be interested in and benefit from Free software are under no obligation to spend confusing hours getting things to install; it's true that most OSes get stuck on a machine and stay there for a while, but that doesn't mean that installation can be ignored. With Free Software OSes especially, it's actually really nice to be able to install whenever you want, without worrying about intrusive "validation" procedures, etc -- I know I dabble with various OSes, just to check out what's new.

That said, to install a Debian system by means *other* than the official installer can be a pretty easy process, especially if you're a bit flexible (just for a few seconds, I swear!) about what constitutes Debian. (And since I really am a perpetual newbie, I think that I'm not exaggerating the ease I'm claiming.) A few examples:

Xandros: a mix of commercial / proprietary stuff, but it's based on straight Debian. Easy to install, nicely graphical, supports a lot of hardware, and (I didn't realize until yesterday) can read and write NTFS, which their sales reps say is unique among out-of-the-box commercial Linux distros. That sounds unlikely to me, but I can't think of a counterexample off-hand. You don't have to use their proprietary stuff.

Ubuntu: Yes, there are divergences, but there's no denying that Ubuntu is at heart a Debian operating system.

Knoppix (along with Kanotix, and many of the other Knoppix derivatives)is nicely installable.

The eLive Live CD not only is one of the easiest ways to install a Debian system, but also one of the simplest ways to install and play with Enlightenment.

And of course I've named just a few of the Live CDs based on Debian, a great many of which are installable.

timothy

Re:Major New Features

[MartinG]

and how many packages for redhat are available from apt repositories? No more than a couple of hundred last time I looked.

And most of the few that were available have moved to yum.

Can you even get official security updates for redhat via apt?