Debian repository

[assalane]

Hi everybody I'm new to those forums.
I'm curently testing some linux distribution, just to make a wise decision on what I should use. I was with fedora for some time now and I tried opensuse too (I can still feel the headache from this last experience lol).

Now, Debian: everything that I installed works flawlessly and smoothly and very fast, but I have a big problem : everything seems so oooolldd. I have debian etch 4.0r3, and it seems to come with gnome 2.14, kernel 2.6.18, openoffice 2.0, firefox 2.0, no wireless support for my intel 3945, crappy resolution (solved), crappy fonts etc, etc, etc.

I feel like I used a time machine, is it normal ?

And THE question : where can I find a good howto to configure my satellite laptop, and if theres is not one, is there some repositories where I can do some serious updates, and install all that is necessary ?

thanks for your patience, I can see the potential of debian but cannot quite use it.

[smolloy]

Debian is quite a slow moving distro. They concentrate more on trying to make it very very stable, which is useful for a lot of situations, but this has the unfortunate affect of making it a little dated. To try a more up to date version of Debian, you should have a look at Ubuntu.

Good luck, and welcome to the forum!

[assalane]

thanks for this quick reply. Yes I noticed that it was stable, no bug so far and some serious speed.
So if I understand correctly ubuntu is just an updated version of debian ?

[smolloy]

Yes. It's extremely popular at the moment, which means that it's very easy to get help for any problems you might have, but it won't be as stable as normal Debian.

Not that it's inherently unstable! I use it at home on my desktop and my laptop, and I'm very happy with it.

[assalane]

thanks i'll try that with the ubuntu source package then