Three general newbie questions

[Martin Pitt]

Hi!

On 2004-09-20 11:49 -0400, de Selby wrote:
> 1. Although I've used it for years, I've never installed linux on one
> of my own machines before. In your opinions, is ubuntu an appropriate
> distro for a "first time installer"?

IMHO yes. A lot of effort has been made to make the installation
suitable for non-tech guys. Just try it!

The most complicated part is currently the partitioning, we do not
yet have a really good interface for this. If you want Warty to use a
whole hard disk, then partitioning can be done automatically. Debian
also offers an option to use the free space, however, for some reason
it was removed for Warty (I want this back myself). If you want to
install only on some partitions, you should have heard the word
"partitioning" before.

> 2. I am considering installing ubuntu on a laptop - I've done some
> homework and have found quite a bit of documentation on installing
> Debian on my particular model and hardware. Can I assume that this
> documentation will basically apply to ubuntu as well?

In fact Warty should install much smoother on a laptop than Debian, so
you may find that much of the Debian documentation is not necessary
for Warty. However, if there are still problems, Debian docs will
generally work. But please drop us a note if there are things that do
not work out of the box!

> 3. I need to use a few obscure programs that are almost certainly not
> included with the ubuntu distribution files. Can I assume that the
> "Debian" versions of these programs (which I have access to) and the
> "Debian installation instructions" are the most appropriate for
> ubuntu?

We offer an archive section "universe" that contains all Debian
packages that are not supported by Warty, so you can use this if you
want. You can easily enable/disable the usage of universe after
installation by uncommenting the two annotated lines in
/etc/apt/sources.list.

Happy installing!

Martin
-- 
Martin Pitt                       http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer            http://www.ubuntulinux.org
Debian GNU/Linux Developer       http://www.debian.org
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-users/attachments/20040920/061692bb/attachment.sig>