okay i am trying to figure what iso's i need to get off linuxiso.org for debian how do i get all the included packeges???

You have to download all those 7 iso files if you want to install everything that there is in Debian!!! Or you can install a basic system first and use apt-get to install anything else you need after that... And however many iso files you plan to download, make sure you run the checksum before you burn them to be sure that they are good. The instructions for checksum and how to burn those files are on the left side of that same site, www.linuxiso.org. taurus

so i download number one and after if i can get my dsl working i can just download the packages i need from the server? is the explanation of installing debian found in the beginner course on linux.org a good howto?? i am a little nervous about installing debian after having heard from everybody that it is so hard to install!

Why don't you head over to www.debian.org and print out the installation manual... That's why, you can follow it why you install it. It is not like RedHat (or Fedora), SUSE, or Mandrake but it's not that difficult either. taurus

OK, with Mandrake or Redhat, you really want at least two CD's. With Debian, there is one main CD which gets you started (everything you need to run a system). Then you have 7 CD's of additional programs - remember a lot of this supports other languages as well. If you need one thing (maybe a PPPoE client for your DSL), don't necessarily get the CD, just download the .deb package. There is nothing really hard about Debian's installation. That said, you might want to read what the screen says. If you have to, download and print an installation guide (or have it handy on another machine, if the luxury exists). There are so many installation tutorials for Debian, Google will be your best friend here. Also, an installation program for another distribution will look different and may have a different order, but much of the actions are the same. You still configure your basic devices, partition your hard drive, etc. Debian Documentation. This is one fairly good installation read.