Readers' forum

At the risk of making the book 1200 pages, how about the mother of all installation guides? Theres so many twists and turns for things to go wrong in a system that allows the user the choice of configuring everything.

Also, listing a few more of the Debian derivatives like DSL and Kannotix (if they respond to your request of course, it seems they werent too fast in responding first time round.)

I'm still making my way through the book but I did find I needed more clarification about the possibilities of converting a previous system to deb ... sort of a chroot guide for total beginners. I dont want to muck up my Mepis install given how many packages it now has, but would like to switch it over intact to a pure Debian Sarge --> etch distro if possible.

BTW, Im sure many people would pay a few bucks more to have both dvds available for the internet challenged :-)

Glad to see that a proceed goes to the Debian project as well... Keep on rockin in the free world

Right now, I am injured (tendonitis), but rest assured that this book will receive more attention. I don't know about the "mother of all installation guides" because I don't see myself as a good writer of guides.

I took note of your suggestion about the DVD.

Did you see page 417?

Thanks for your feedback!

Will check out 417. Hope there are no complications with the tendonitis...at present I seem to be losing feeling in the pinky of my left hand; causing me to look at how I type and sit while typing...are those huge split keyboards really of any use?

BTW, if you werent a good writer of guides, the book wouldnt be getting such good press :-) Perhaps mother of all installation guides is an exageration but I still have a bizarre 800x600 horrible font at 60mhz on the laptop install of sarge cd #1. The download of cd 2 is corrupt so its back to the drawing board. Im sure there is a simple solution for getting a great looking sarge on laptop, but havent found it yet.

The Mepis went the way of all things and is replaced by Slackware dual booted with ubuntu, till I know more about making the whole thing debian. Seems I got this *thing* (read hangup) about semi-closed source installers that doesnt come up with kanotix, or ubuntu or slack.

Glad to have your book to ponder over the meanings of free software with...:-) Cheers

Any plans of mentioning Sidux (the fork from the semi-defunct Kanotix) in the Lenny edition? They just hit their first year with four planned releases and make Sid a bit more accessible to newer users .... as opposed to completely new. People should know its pulling from Debian Sid and gives users a chance to try the bleeding edge with a bit of guidance from the devs....

I've run Sid and Sidux, and its nice to have a one disk distro that emphasizes its Debian roots and ethics and focuses on Sid. Hopefully a boon to Debian devs with more people now involved in running and testing Sid changes and packages. From their forum , they sound interested in giving back to Debian alot more than some of the distros listed in Debian Derivatives these days in the older edition. Just a quick FYI as you look into the possibility of a Lenny edition.

Two years later and its still a great book I haven't finished using by any means........would love to get another surfing cow Debian dvd again.....

cheers

While it's nice to mention other debians, I'd say that the book is about Debian, so maybe it's only worth talking about derivatives if it adds to the Debian story. For example Damn Small is Debian but cut down, so it's worth mentioning for ultra small systems. Sidux is Debian sid stabilised so it's only worth taking about in context of Debian sid. Personally I wouldn't want Martin to waste too much time talking about other debians, there is so much about Debian he can cover.