At 11:26 AM 1/24/02 -0500, you wrote:
>[Sorry about continuing this OT thread]
>
>I was considering Debian, but it appeared to me that several packages
>were a bit outdated.  It also seemed like they aren't up to the 2.4
>kernel yet (which I need).  When I read a little more, I found a lot of
>discussion about the quality of Debian  starting to suffer and
>complaints about them not being able to keep up with the latest
>packages.
>
>Are these valid issues?
>
>- Stephen

As a Debian user,  I'd say there's something to these concerns, but it's 
easy to exaggerate them.  You definitely can get the 2.4 kernel.  Debian 
comes in three flavors:
stable: as it says
testing: one step back from the bleeding edge of unstable
unstable: this is where the brand new packages first emerge

If a package has been in unstable for a bit and had no reported serious 
bugs, it goes into testing.
So these choices offer a trade off from most to least stable vs least to 
most current.  One can also run in basically one of these distributions, 
but pull selected packages from more cutting edge ones.

I use testing, and have found it pretty satisfactory.  It does sometimes 
require that one have one's wits about, though.

The fact that you install a distribution with one kernel does not mean you 
are locked into that kernel; later ones get released and are pretty easy to 
install.  I don't know if the 2.4 series has been ported back to stable, 
but it's available for the others.

Debian is currently approaching a release (v 3.0, aka woody).  This means 
that testing has a pretty full and solid set of packages; it also means (I 
think) that it's lagging a little further behind unstable as certain 
crucial packages have been frozed to solidify things.  If you're 
considering Debian, you might want to go with woody/testing.  (FYI, 
unstable is also called sid).

Debian has an extraordinary number of packages, and it is very easy to 
install and update them.  Licensing issues prevent it from including 
squeak, but there is a 3.0 VM packaged for squeak and rumors of an 
impending new build in the near future.