-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 >>>>> "Søren" == Søren Neigaard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
[...] Søren> Should I uncomment the security line? My machine is a Søren> workstation, not a server, is this needed? IMHO, every Linux user should be in the habit of keeping up to date with security patches. Remember: when Code Red and its variants hit, most of the infected machines were Win2K machines that were used as workstations, where the owner didn't even know that he/she was running IIS. Besides, updating your packages with security fixes almost never hurts. Also, some exploits are local exploits. i.e. they can allow local users to gain root access. If this is a laptop and you are the only user, and you keep a close eye on it at all times, this may not be an issue for you. But if you leave it out of your sight for a while (e.g. going to lunch), it is possible (and it's up to you to determine if the risk is great enough) that someone might break into it and do nasty things. Søren> What do you recommend, what do I gain from running testing Søren> packages? Would it be smart when it comes to X? You mentioned a desire to run Evolution. AFAIK Evolution is not in Potato, and even if it was, it would be quite out of date. Betas for Evolution 1.0 have started appearing recently. AFAIK, the XFree86 in testing is 4.something. XFree86 4 introduced some architectural changes over 3.3.6. As a result, XFree86 4 does not support as many video cards as XFree86 3. You might be able to still use your 3.3.6 server with the v.4 libraries, but I don't know. They have been getting pretty good at porting most of the drivers, and maybe by now XFree86 4.1 supports everything that 3.3.6 supported. Check the XFree86 web page. http://www.xfree86.org/ GSM> apt-get dist-upgrade-- if you want to update the core system of GSM> yours to the next release (say, potato to woody) Søren> What is woody, does this include a new kernel? Woody is a new set of packages -- some new packages, mostly newer versions of Potato packages. I believe that it does include a new kernel (probably at least 2.2.19, and I wouldn't be surprised if it has 2.4), but you will need to explicitly tell apt to install it. But if you are on a laptop, you might want to use a custom-compiled kernel anyways. This will allow you to tweak the settings, and get rid of some of the drivers that you don't need, to reduce memory usage. It will also compile the kernel for the CPU that you have instead of just i386 (although recently, at least in sid, they have multiple versions of the kernels compiled for different CPU's). Check out the kernel-package package. Of course, this means that you will need to install gcc and some other stuff, if you haven't already, so it may or may not be worth it for you. As Glen said, there's a lot to learn about Debian for you to use it effectively. The thing I like about Debian, though, is that all those things are pretty easy to remember once you learn it. I co-administered a Red Hat box at work for a couple years, and I still can't tell you how to get rpm to do certain things. Building from a source rpm is guess-and-test for me. But with Debian, I did it once, and I've remembered how to do it from then on. So don't despair. It may seem complicated now, but once you get the hang of it, it will be smooth sailing. - -- Hubert Chan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> - http://www.geocities.com/hubertchan/ PGP/GnuPG key: 1024D/71FDA37F Fingerprint: 6CC5 822D 2E55 494C 81DD 6F2C 6518 54DF 71FD A37F Key available at wwwkeys.pgp.net. Please encrypt *all* e-mail to me. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.0.6 (GNU/Linux) Comment: For info see http://www.gnupg.org iD8DBQE7xiVxZRhU33H9o38RAvdwAJ4jkk8YxRosu+rh99Y8vKWbm5olDACeIVqd E6Hw5xujyb2je7ZO0qbu+kg= =bnz8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
