According to rumors, Linus Torvalds once said something like that like the best thing Ubuntu ever did was make Debian easy to use. All according to this information, the father of Linux once tried to install Debian, he failed, he hasn't tried again and the rest is history. Times change, to the point that even Arch Linux is easier to install, and install Debian It must be easier today than when Torvalds failed.
For the user who has done distro-hopping, that is, for those of us who have tried everything, installing Debian is easy. It might be a little more confusing that what they offer most in sight is their network install image, also known as netints. With a much smaller size and a less intuitive installer, this option is not impossible to install, but, as we will explain at the end of the article, it's worth looking for the "full" pictures.
Install Debian via the netinst ISO
An image netinst or network installation it is a much smaller image than the full ones, and will download part of what is necessary during the process. Therefore, it is mandatory to have an internet connection, or else we will not be able to install anything other than the base. That image is in this link. Explained this, the steps to follow would be these:
- We create an installation USB. For a long time, my favorite program to create them is Etcher.
- We restart the computer and choose the installation USB that we have created in step 1. How to achieve this will depend on the computer. For example, in some you can boot from USB by pressing F12 and choosing this medium. In other cases, you have to enter the configuration of the equipment and make it start from the USB.
- The first thing we will see will be something like the following image, and we must choose “Graphical Install”.
- Next we have to choose the language that will be used during the installation. In my case, Spanish from Spain.
- In the next window we will choose our zone, information that the installer will use later.
- Going to the next window, what we will have to choose is the keyboard configuration, in my case, Spanish.
- The truth is that we would save some windows if this installer grouped them together, but it is not. In this next one we have to choose the name of the team, for example, debian.
- After choosing the name of the computer, we will have to put the name of a domain. We can make it up, but it has to be the same on all our computers. Here one can remember what Torvalds said...
- In the next step we will have to put a password for the super user or root, it is important to remember it.
- After putting the password of the super user, we will have to create a normal user, starting with the full name.
- Then we will put the name of the user, or rather, of the account.
- Once the account name is entered, we will have to enter the password. Did we mention that this installer could have fewer pages?
- Now we are going to tell you the time zone. As we have already said, it gives us a choice between three possibilities if we are in Spain, but because it already knew where we were from.
- In the next window we will tell you how we want the disk. If we are new, or if we simply do not want anything complicated, the first option is recommended.
- In the next step we will choose the disk where we will install the operating system.
- This is when we'll tell it if we want everything to be in one partition or separate including others like /home. The same as before, if we do not want to separate them or complicate ourselves, or we are new (the installer already says so), we choose the first option.
- The next window is basically to confirm things.
- And then, as a double check, we have to confirm that we want to go ahead.
- After the previous step, we will have to wait for the first installations to be carried out, more specifically the base of the operating system.
- After having installed the base of the system, it will ask us if we have additional installation media, and if we want to use it. In our case, no.
- In the following steps additional software will be downloaded, and in the first one we have to indicate where we are again.
- In addition to where, we must also choose a server.
- And indicate a proxy if we want to use one. In our case, we leave the box empty.
- Second time we have to wait for it to install packages.
- It will then ask us if we want to send anonymous usage statistics. Everyone is free to choose what they want, but I answer yes to projects like this.
- The next window is also important. In it we will choose the graphical environment that we want to use, and we can also install the web and ssh servers. I have left it as is, and it will install GNOME.
- We wait again for it to install what is necessary, but there is little left.
- In the next two steps, you will get ready to install grub. In the first one, it asks us if we install it on the main unit.
- In the second of them, we indicate where.
- We wait one last time and...
- The next thing we will see is a window informing that the installation has been successful.
- We can now extract the installation media and restart, which when it starts it will already enter the operating system.
Installation via Live images
The network installer option is not the only one. Debian is also available as Live images, ready to test and with the graphic environment already included. The link to this type of images is this, and at the time of writing this article it is in Cinnamon, GNOME, KDE, LXDE, LXQt, MATE and XFCE versions.
The installation process with these types of images is more intuitive than the "netinst" version. What we will see will be an installer like the usual one, Calamares, and everything is the same as in the rest of the systems that use this installer. In fact, everything will be faster.
Whatever you choose, this is the Debian installation process, and we hope that Linus Torvalds or someone else found it helpful.
When linus released that, there weren't even half of the distros that we have available today, the article is interesting as always, but starting it like this, I don't see it as very strange, frankly.
nice clickbait try :P
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Now one to install Devuan please