Last week while my network access and free time were at a quarterly low, O’Reilly published an article by Edd Dumbill on installing Debian. The article is titled Installing Debian, with the tagline It’s really that easy to install Debian! I am not surprised that people perceive Debian as more difficult to install than some of the commercial GNU/Linux distributions with their slick graphical interfaces for installation. Most people only know of the older way of installing Debian, which is admittedly less than convenient. Debian’s installer has greatly simplified installation, but most people I talk to aren’t aware that it exists, even experienced system administrators.
If you are experienced with Debian, but the thought of mentoring someone through a “getting started” period holds little to no appeal, refer them to the article. Low cost evangelization and advocacy, sweet! Plus, extra visitors to the article mean increased visibility for Martin Krafft‘s book, Debian System Concepts and Techniques.
If you are someone who keeps contemplating an attempt to move to GNU/Linux, and the aims and guidelines of the Debian project appeal to you, check out the article. It may just be enough information to get you going.
I haven’t been very productive in my open source work the last week, largely due to “real life” eating up most of my time; part of the ebb and flow for a F/OSS activist, I guess. It is particularly frustrating, since we are experiencing a significant period of productivity in the Debian Java project.