This is why changing the default prompt for everyone is not a good idea. You guys can't even agree on what you want the new prompt to be. And if you want my personal preference, any prompt longer than '$ ' is too long. If I want to know what directory I'm in, I just pwd.
Instead of arguing back and forth about this new prompt, please do something constructive. Build a "Debian 4 dummies" package, which includes your favorite prompt along with all of the other nice defaults that you wish to include. Add a sentence in the package's description that says "If you are new to Debian or Linux, this package comes HIGHLY RECOMMENDED." Of course, there will be some technical details with the implementation of this package that will need to be ironed out, such as how to get PS='<your favorite prompt>' into /etc/profile, but I'm sure that these will be minor. If you want to get fancy, you can also add to this package some useful scripts for configuring a Debian system that no Unix "real man" would need or want. I believe that the newbie-friendly defaults should be collected in one place and not scattered across many Debian packages. If they are in one package (or a small number of packages), it will be easier for us to define what the Debian newbie-friendly environment is and to plan what we want it to become. I especially believe that these defaults should be optional. Remember, the user should configure her system, not deconfigure it. If she must spend time and effort to rid her system of somebody else's nifty configuration, then IMO we're doing it wrong. Brian -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .