Debian: The Sidux Install « Gautham's Blog: The Smaller Bang

I have finally replaced Debian “Lenny” (Testing) with Debian “Sid” (Unstable) based Sidux, due to the reasons mentioned here. Anyway, I installed the 2008.1 DVD. As first time impressions can be misleading, I usually avoid them, but now I HAVE to say it feels great. Its doccumentation is detailed and indepth. It gives lots and lots of advice to the user.

Its live mode rocked, and I installed the KDE-Full DVD, which is around 1.4GB, in just 14 minutes and 53 seconds(its installer displays this even this information during install – saves me the trouble of having to start my stopwatch and stare at the monitor when the install is nearing its end so that I may stop my stopwatch). I am sorry that I couldn’t get any screenshots during installation, which were easily possible, for you the reader’s benifit due to my negligence. Anyway, the first time I installed it, I realised that I had forgotton to remove configuration files for programs from the Lenny install and move them to a special backup folder. So I had to do a reinstall. During that time, I went and watched a bit of TV and read the June issue of Linux For You magazine. Anyway, second install is not a problem with linux, because unlike windows, once you set various parameters, install is unattended. So I finally finished installing Sidux for the last time.

Booting into it, I found many things about sidux that is appealing. Especially its installed applications. It had all the apps I would need from a standard desktop, ecept some non-free components. Its jam packed with administrative tools too. There are nifty shortcuts everywhere. Unlike lenny, Sidux Linux feels great.

Ofcourse, the real experience for Debian Sid is supposed to be its upgrades and dist-upgrades, which I am supposed to be very careful while doing. But luckily, I read up sufficient information about the same and noted it down on my newly made computer log book which I keep on my computer table 24/7, for jotting down important notes.

I am going to upgrade and dist-upgrade Sidux at 2:00 AM as usual today. Before doing it, I have ensured that I have enabled all the repositories. IIT Madras is the mirror closest to me, and offers very high speeds. But I heard its often not updated. Sid always needs latest mirrors, as there might be lots of security issues pending. So I used the tw.debian.org mirror, the Taiwanese debian mirror instead. More experiences on installing software and updating them via debian will be up in my next post.