Ok, I haven't researched this in great detail, but my understanding is this. Debian, unlike a lot of other Linux distributions, can be added to and worked on by many different people, it's not just a certain closed group. Therefore, changes are constantly being made and it's constantly in testing mode. Therefore, there are two versions of debian. The "stable" version, currently 2.2 I believe, is the one that is only updated when there are major changes to put in. It has been tested and run by a lot of people and should run with minimal problems. The unstable version, which could be the "potato" one but not sure, is the under development one, like a beta. Any new submissions are put into that one first, so it's constantly being changed and updated. How exactly these updates are done and by whom I'm not sure, but we went with the stable version our our machines. You can get more info on this at www.debian.org. Also once it's installed, check out the apt-get and apt-cache commands, really cool. On another topic. Has anyone been successful using ddclient with debian? If so, would you mind writing me privately? I got the thing installed, but it's not updating the ip address an the docs aren't all that helpful. Then again it's been years since I've seriously worked with this stuff. Thanks. Christy ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris Schulte" <cjschulte@xxxxxxxx> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 8:00 PM Subject: Totally lost and confused > Hi all, > I sent this message to the newbie list, but seeing as how there's more > trafic on this list I'll post it here as well. > > I've been waiting for a while to put linux on my system, and am now hearing > that as a new user, redhat is probably not the way to go. Just based on the > discussions I've seen, and some tips from a friend, I am thinking that > debian is probably better for a new user. So I am on the debian site, and > I'm seeing all of these things about potatoes and stable and am totally lost > and cunfused as to which I should download, and for that matter if I'm even > in the right directory on the ftp site. Please help? > Tnx in advance, > Chris > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup