Ever since comparing seven Linux distributions on my "old thinkpad" testbed, I've remained impressed with the flexibility and ease-of-maintenance of Debian-based Linuxes. In my followup article on using Etch as a desktop OS, I pondered converting my primary desktop from SUSE to Debian. I've done it.

Here's my tale...

Preparations

To set the stage, the system I'm migrating Etch to is a several-years-old Sony Vaio laptop, the PCG-FXA59. Its processor is a 1.3GHz Mobile AMD AThlon XP 1500+ with 256KB of L2 cache, 512MB of SDRAM, and an ATI 3D Rage Mobility-M1 graphics chip. It also has a 30GB hard drive, CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, dual PCMCIA slots, dual USB 1.10 ports, a parallel printer port, an internal modem, and a 15-inch LCD display. For my daily work desktop purposes, I use this laptop in conjunction with a ViewSonic VA902b external LCD monitor along with an external USB keyboard and mouse.

Full Story.