A Guide to Debian 7.0 “Wheezy” Linux OS

Each time a new Debian is out, people get excited. Releases aren’t frequent, which makes one special. The releases are also appreciated because many distributions such as the Linux Mint, Mepis and Pinguy among others have been based on it.

Setting Up Your Desktops

As opposed to other distributions, the Debian Linux 7.0 Wheezy has plenty of installation images in several different formats. The best part is that they are compatible with a variety of CPU architectures. The following are some details of each image installation type:

Network Installation image (netinst):

This is perhaps the most widely used one. While it is just 200 MB in size, on installing it, you will see that it automatically receives the latest packages, which rids you of the worry over installing the latest updates. What you do need, however, is a proper internet connection with good speed for the installation. If you can’t manage this, you will need to use an ISO image type.

CD/DVD Installer images:

These are batches of ISO images, and on the first disk, you will be able to attain installation using a graphical desktop (GUI). The following disks carry the remaining complete distribution packages. Debian supports many desktops, such as the KDE, Gnome, Xfce and LXDE. You will have a different “disk 1” image for each desktop. The disk 1 image is a default Gnome 3 installer, which will take effect if you fail to select one of the others.

Live CD images:

As its name suggests, these live CD images let you boot and run a “Live” image. When everything runs through fine, you can carry on installing the system on your hard drive. There is a great variety available with different versions for Xfce, Gnome, KDE and LXDE desktops.

Going through the procedures above is good enough exercise to understand the developments in the Debian release. It tells you a lot about the relative size and weight of your desktop environment. Having all four types of desktops on one system will allow you to select whichever one you wish to log in with.

These four different desktops are far more than that because by installing LXDE, you also get openbox. You can choose this option at the time you log in through the Session menu.

Investigating the Wired Networking Setup

Apart from the relatively simple things described above, there are a couple of things that are worth talking about. This refers to using the netinst installer across a wired network connection; the Debian establishes a fixed configuration for this interface.

This disallows the Network Manager from having any control over configuring and controlling the wired network. This might not occur for most people, but there are a few users who might face this issue. In order to avert this, you just need to edit or tinker around with the network and interfaces, and then reboot.

The latest Debian release has proved to be quite an interesting one that you can spend time exploring. It’s worth also mentioning that Debian supports a wide range of CPU architectures, which is unlike many other releases. This makes it a more embracing release compared to past ones.

[Image via engadget]