In The Debian Way (3)

Last time we finished the installation and we've got a brand new system with almost all the productive applications we need. However, it need to be enhanced.

And this post will guide you to do some very simple and basic configurations.

1) If you are a non-English user, you may be in favor to customize the language so that the new system will be more user-friendly to you.
In Debian distro it is quiet simple. Activate a console and use this command to help you out.
dpkg -reconfigure locales, then select the code you may use and exit.
They try to install the localization for KDE and the console, and you will get a new interface with your favorable language.Take simplified Chinese for example the localization package are named as kde-i18n and zhcon.

2)dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 or dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg (it depends on whether you are running xfree86 or Xorg)
If the display is not satisfying, use the above command to reset them. Most of the mainstream graphic cards could be recognized and configured well automatically. Plus, card make by Nvidia and Ati have their own drivers and softwares. The age for Linux users to worry about his own hardware and are forced to collect drivers all over the internet has already gone. Never worry about your graphic card, let alone the monitor.

3)Debian's stable version included a large number of ancient softwares. Even the testing ones are somehow out of date more or less. So it is highly recommended to alter your source list to unstable (known now as "sid"). Afterwords, if you attempt to do a total upgrade, your tools will far newer.

4) Due to a lot of reasons, fonts in Linux have always been a headache for users who care about them. So it is quite a good idea to import the good-looking yet mature ones directly from M$ Windows. Mount your Windows partition to a mount-point and try to copy the fonts you like to /usr/share/fonts/truetype. Personally I think Tahoma is extraordinary.

5) If you find Debian running a little bit hard on your machine, try to install rcconf to kill some daemon process to accelerate the time of booting and the tool hdparm to activate the DMA mode for your harddisk.The usage of both the two are pretty simple.Google it and learn by yourself.

Now the job is nearly accomplished. You need to install certain tools ,some of them are not included in the CD1 of Debian.

For Office Suite, I recommend Koffice and Abiword. OpenOffice is far better than the two,but too slow, at least for me.
For music, try amarok, you will love it.
For video-viewing, totem VLC and Kaffeine are all outstanding. Any will do.
For Window Management, I don't think KDE or Gnome is your first choice, they have their own edges for example they need no deep knowledge about the configuration and they are beautiful, but they are not stable, at least not more stable than their rivals.I like xfce and IceWM most. Try to install them, they surely will bring you efficiency.

That is all for the simple guide. Wish you can enjoy Debian. Remember, apt system is the best so far as we known.

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