Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
In the first video of 2021, I decided looking at a sealed box of Debian Linux 2.1 from 1999 that I found on eBay would be a fun way to set the tone for the new year. Sponsored by VA Linux, this box proudly claims that it's the last Linux you'll ever have to buy, trouts up the advantages of apt-get, and that you would never have to buy software again.
Included in the box was a demo disk of Myth II from Loki Games, offers of StarOffice, and much more, but what I would find in practice is that, at best, most of what was offered was optimistic at best, and downright deceptive at worst from VA Linux. Compounding the issue, VA muddled this release of Debian by only including one of a two CD set, but this glosses over a large number of issues in trying to use Linux in this era, as well as the oddities of Debian in specific.
As compared to almost any other distribution, Debian had a reputation of being somewhat difficult to install (although its admittedly better than Slackware), but what would surprise me the most is that Debian's overall user experience was far less than that of Softlanding Linux System from five years prior.
This doesn't help that Debian is overly complicated and it would take many years of effort (primarily from Ubuntu) that would help smooth out many of the rough end of this product. While this video only goes into the ins and outs of installation, it would show what a miserable experience a user would have, and some of the major mistakes made by VA Linux. It would also show that while Debian has become a cornerstone of many Linux distributions today, it would also have a difficult start and genesis.
Interesting Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - The Golden Age of Big Boxed Linux
03:10 - Cutting the Shrink-wrap
05:00 - Dual-booting Discussion, FIPS, and PartitionMagic
06:10 - Starting Installation
07:12 - Disk Partitioning
08:30 - Finding the CD-ROM
09:30 - Second-Stage Installer, tasksel, and dselect
12:00 - Trying to Configure Debian Properly ...
13:50 - Difficulty with gpm ...
15:08 - Debian's origins
16:33 - On The Topic of Dial-Up Networking ...
18:30 - The Single CD Problem
19:20 - Post-Installation Problems
20:05 - Deceptive Packaging from VA Linux/Conclusions
21:50 - Signoff and Thanks
---
NCommander's Socials:
Twitter: twitter.com/FOSSfirefighter
Discord: discord.gg/V8esNah
Blog: https://casadevall.pro/
Music is from http://www.epidemicsound.com, with the following tracks used in order:
- Circular Thought - Ethan Sloan
- West of the Soul - River Foxcroft
- Without Purpose - Jon
- Rise of the Velcro - Gabriel Lewis
- Deviation In Time - Johannes Bornlof
- Infernal Machine - Bonnie Grace
- Maze Heist - Max Anson
- Person of Interest - Dream Cave
- At Evenfall - Howard Harper-Barnes
- In the Aftermath - Michael Rothery
- Night Thoughts - Max Anson
- Chasing the Truth - Dream Cave
This video is a corrected upload since the original had broken audio issues.
In the first video of 2021, I decided looking at a sealed box of Debian Linux 2.1 from 1999 that I found on eBay would be a fun way to set the tone for the new year. Sponsored by VA Linux, this box proudly claims that it's the last Linux you'll ever have to buy, trouts up the advantages of apt-get, and that you would never have to buy software again.
Included in the box was a demo disk of Myth II from Loki Games, offers of StarOffice, and much more, but what I would find in practice is that, at best, most of what was offered was optimistic at best, and downright deceptive at worst from VA Linux. Compounding the issue, VA muddled this release of Debian by only including one of a two CD set, but this glosses over a large number of issues in trying to use Linux in this era, as well as the oddities of Debian in specific.
As compared to almost any other distribution, Debian had a reputation of being somewhat difficult to install (although its admittedly better than Slackware), but what would surprise me the most is that Debian's overall user experience was far less than that of Softlanding Linux System from five years prior.
This doesn't help that Debian is overly complicated and it would take many years of effort (primarily from Ubuntu) that would help smooth out many of the rough end of this product. While this video only goes into the ins and outs of installation, it would show what a miserable experience a user would have, and some of the major mistakes made by VA Linux. It would also show that while Debian has become a cornerstone of many Linux distributions today, it would also have a difficult start and genesis.
Interesting Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - The Golden Age of Big Boxed Linux
03:10 - Cutting the Shrink-wrap
05:00 - Dual-booting Discussion, FIPS, and PartitionMagic
06:10 - Starting Installation
07:12 - Disk Partitioning
08:30 - Finding the CD-ROM
09:30 - Second-Stage Installer, tasksel, and dselect
12:00 - Trying to Configure Debian Properly ...
13:50 - Difficulty with gpm ...
15:08 - Debian's origins
16:33 - On The Topic of Dial-Up Networking ...
18:30 - The Single CD Problem
19:20 - Post-Installation Problems
20:05 - Deceptive Packaging from VA Linux/Conclusions
21:50 - Signoff and Thanks
---
NCommander's Socials:
Twitter: twitter.com/FOSSfirefighter
Discord: discord.gg/V8esNah
Blog: https://casadevall.pro/
Music is from http://www.epidemicsound.com, with the following tracks used in order:
- Circular Thought - Ethan Sloan
- West of the Soul - River Foxcroft
- Without Purpose - Jon
- Rise of the Velcro - Gabriel Lewis
- Deviation In Time - Johannes Bornlof
- Infernal Machine - Bonnie Grace
- Maze Heist - Max Anson
- Person of Interest - Dream Cave
- At Evenfall - Howard Harper-Barnes
- In the Aftermath - Michael Rothery
- Night Thoughts - Max Anson
- Chasing the Truth - Dream Cave
This video is a corrected upload since the original had broken audio issues.
