Hi, I just want to know about etch RC2, is it worth to use it as a daily OS (as a desktop OS)? and if the final version released can I just do an update/upgrade or I have do a fresh install ? and will that be an huge update if I try to sync with final version if the time come?
and the last thing (but not too important) which version should I use the i386 or amd64 version since I have AMD64 X2 processor?
thanx for any suggestion and answers, again thanx in advance

All these issues have been addressed countless times. Etch is ready. 64-bit vs. 32-bit depends mainly on how critical is your need for codecs that have not been written for 64-bit systems.

That lack of codecs pertains to all 64-bit systems, not just Debian. I don't think most of them are even written for Windows.

Etch is ready.. It's been ready for months.. Upgrading to final is as easy as typing "apt-get update&& apt-get upgrade" into a terminal as root.

I use Debian Sid 32 bit on my 64 bit AMD Turion notebook. For me, there is no real advantage to 64 bit.

wow....so it's true that's etch is ready ok I will grab the etch DVD iso then
thanx a lot for the information

For me the advantage to the 64 bit branch is responsiveness.

If you have broadband just download the etch netinstall.iso about 150MB and it will download the rest of what it needs at install time.. Usually MUCH less than the size of the DVD.iso which will be outdated shortly anyway..

hmm after read this I seems like little bit worry http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata
should I worry?

I typically just grab the latest daily build of the net-installer rather than the latest weekly or rc build. I haven't run into any problems with it, on the dozen or so PC's I've used it on.. I figure the daily builds have probably addressed many of those issues already.

but then again I also manage a Windows network, so I obviously don't mind living on the edge of instability.. heh

Just install it already! Debian is famous for being fanatic about openness. That's why the internal politics attract so much attention. Read the various points in that errata carefully, and you'll notice that they all refer to very specific and unusual configurations.

Unless you have such a configuration, you won't be affected. Debian Etch is right now probably the most bug free of any distro.

farslayer and rickh thanx a lot for your explanations, I think will install etch tonight also I will consedering using etch as a long term OS
thanx

Trying to get weekly build iso but seems like the weekly build still date as 17-03-2007 or is it already fix ISO, I mean freeze?

I have installed Etch on 4 machines in the last 2 days. I used both the official RC2 installer and the daily build from 3-25-07. Both worked flawlessly.

The 64-bit version could be a large advantage performancewise....I dual boot Etch i386 & Etch amd64, and the amd64 not only noticeably boots much faster but does some cpu-intensive things (like gzipping) in about half the time that the i386 does on the same hardware. But other things, like compiling the kernel take about the same 45 minutes on each. Of course the catch with the amd64 version is the win32 codecs, flash, chroots and all of this nonsense.

I've been using etch on the desktop since about July and it's definitely stable.

But I think about win32codecs, wine, and flash things on AMD64 version have been solved since there are many "howto" to solved that problem
Maybe it's time to use AMD64 version