On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 09:24:18AM -0600, hlingis wrote: > Dear Sir or Madam, > > ...I'm sure you've heard this before, I can't download an error free ISO of > either version of potato or woody.
<SNIP> Personally, I haven't heard this before... Myself, I'm no sort of techie, tech instructor, or guru of any other flavour; but I had very little trouble downloading, burning, and installing an error-free woody ISO. Jigdo under WinXP gave me some annoyance, so I used WS_FTP to get the 3.0 rev1 ISO from one of the mirrors listed on http://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/ Checked the md5sum, burned it with Nero, and allowed the installer to do its own integrity-check, too. It, ahem, Just Worked(tm). > ...then, can't get x to run, xfree86 issues, sound issues, display issues, > modem issues-this should not be this hard, with a machine less than a year > old Nope, but seems unsurprising on an install from a stack of corrupt CDs. > ...ok, the ability to download a good copy (either ISO or jigdo) appears to > be a myth, so my question is: if I buy a copy from some vendor, who, and > where, and what hopes do I have to get an error free copy that way? I'm > trying to avoid going redhat or mandrake or whatever... It's no myth. Perhaps the client prog. you're using for the download is broken. And I've never tried that route, but I'm inclined to suspect that if you buy a copy from some vendor (any vendor you like: I believe there's a list on the debian homepage) your chances of getting an error-free disk would be something approaching 100%. > ...I believe in this product's concept, would like to help promote it > within our educational system as an economical alternative On this point, you're not likely to get any argument from this crowd. Many of us are busy promoting Debian within and without various educational systems around the world. > ...my point is, if I can't do it, how can I ask that the person on the > street could be expected to do it Well... I *am* the person on the street, and I did it. > ...I guess I should look at this as an opportunity to launch my own > version-is that necessary? I hope not. I'd say that's nowhere near necessary. There are already more Linux distros than you can shake a stick at. I think that trying to replace the entire debian project because of your own inability to download an ISO is a bit excessive. Also unlikely to get very far. > ...I truly want to participate in a process that helps break a monopoly and > bring debian gnu linux to the masses, is that the objective of anyone else? Woo-hoo! That's a major part of my reason for being here. The other major part is that I want to use my computer, not vice versa. (MS has long annoyed me with their "you don't need to know" way of doing everything, but with XP's built-in spyware... that crossed the line as far as I'm concerned.) > ...any dialogue would be appreciated Good, good. As long as you're not just trolling, I think you can expect plenty of lively dialogue. Cheers! -Chris
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