Last few months I was thinking of testing Debian. Why? Because all Ubuntu and Ubuntu derivatives derive their origin from Debian only. However, net reviews said that Debian is not for beginners; hence I refrained for sometime till I had enough expertise in handling minor/major problems in Ubuntu and derived OSs.
This week I downloaded Debian squeeze (debian-6.0.4-i386-CD-1.iso) from http://www.debian.org/distrib/. Both 32-bit and 64-bit editions are there. Once downloaded, extract it to any folder and click on the .exe file inside. It will do the initial install and ask you to restart for complete installation. Store the iso file in an usb as it will come handy during installation.
The installation guide is fairly simple and self explanatory. Debian automatically tracks the iso file in the usb drive during installation and will guide you in the rest of the process. You have to create a separate partition for Debian and keep the computer connected to internet to download the applications and GUI. To avoid it you can download the 4.5 GB installation files, write it to a DVD (bootable) and install the OS from there. I have unlimited internet plan and preferred the first approach.
Once the installation is done, I checked the RAM and CPU usage - it is 2-7% CPU & 130-140 MiB RAM. Incredibly lower than Ubuntu based distros! That is because Debian still uses Gnome 2.30.2 and it is much lighter than Gnome 3.
Performance-wise Debian is truly father of all linux distros. Fast, customizable, zippy and complete. Default applications include:
All apps you prefer are in the Software Center (System -> Administration -> Software Center). In addition, you can also add Ubuntu/Mint repositories as well.
All in all a complete distro. I downloaded VLC player & a Docky in addition and replaced Iceweasel (as it kept crashing when I installed adobe flash plugin) with Firefox. For Docky, process to enable compositor is given in my earlier post.
As a distro it is stable and every 6 months you won't need to replace it as in Ubuntu or Mint (or even Fedora) and also it uses Gnome 2. I was using Ubuntu for quite sometime and then shifted to Mint after Maya release. Now, for sure I am going to use Debian for quite sometime. I haven't uninstalled Maya yet but may not use it that often as I was till last week. Debian stole my heart!
This week I downloaded Debian squeeze (debian-6.0.4-i386-CD-1.iso) from http://www.debian.org/distrib/. Both 32-bit and 64-bit editions are there. Once downloaded, extract it to any folder and click on the .exe file inside. It will do the initial install and ask you to restart for complete installation. Store the iso file in an usb as it will come handy during installation.
The installation guide is fairly simple and self explanatory. Debian automatically tracks the iso file in the usb drive during installation and will guide you in the rest of the process. You have to create a separate partition for Debian and keep the computer connected to internet to download the applications and GUI. To avoid it you can download the 4.5 GB installation files, write it to a DVD (bootable) and install the OS from there. I have unlimited internet plan and preferred the first approach.
Once the installation is done, I checked the RAM and CPU usage - it is 2-7% CPU & 130-140 MiB RAM. Incredibly lower than Ubuntu based distros! That is because Debian still uses Gnome 2.30.2 and it is much lighter than Gnome 3.
Performance-wise Debian is truly father of all linux distros. Fast, customizable, zippy and complete. Default applications include:
- Internet: Iceweasel (similar to Firefox from Mozilla only), Epiphany browser, Empathy messenger, Ekiga Softphone, Evolution mail client, Liferea feed reader and bit torrent client
- Office: OpenOffice is present with writer, calc, present, draw, base, etc.
- Photo editor: GIMP, Inkscape, Shotwell
- Webcam: Cheese
- Media player: Gnome Movie player, Rhythmbox (for music), audio CD extractor, Basero
All apps you prefer are in the Software Center (System -> Administration -> Software Center). In addition, you can also add Ubuntu/Mint repositories as well.
All in all a complete distro. I downloaded VLC player & a Docky in addition and replaced Iceweasel (as it kept crashing when I installed adobe flash plugin) with Firefox. For Docky, process to enable compositor is given in my earlier post.
As a distro it is stable and every 6 months you won't need to replace it as in Ubuntu or Mint (or even Fedora) and also it uses Gnome 2. I was using Ubuntu for quite sometime and then shifted to Mint after Maya release. Now, for sure I am going to use Debian for quite sometime. I haven't uninstalled Maya yet but may not use it that often as I was till last week. Debian stole my heart!
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