[Chixla] Yup ... impressed with Debian

[SMichelle]

OK, so the learning curve continues ... but just found
'update-alternatives'. And this, along with apt-get, just has to be one
of the more elegant ways to handle an OS systems issue.
I was having a *huge* trauma in getting gnome instead of kde to be the
default desktop ... I just couldn't figure out *where* the kde default
setting was located. Well, those settings are in the 'alternatives' set
of system handling. Debian symbolically links a generic command to a
file in the /etc/alternatives/ directory, which then is symbolically
linked to the actual program file. 
So there were two x-session-managers (kde & gnome) that Debian was
handling ... and I 'update-alternatives --config x-session-manager'
which allowed me to change which desktop was the default.  To list which
choices are available would be 'update-alternatives --list (or --display
for more detailed information) x-session-manager'.
It would be the same for, say, vi. There are two possible alternatives
(vim and nvi) for which vim is the default editor ... and even more
impressive is that the man pages are also updated to reflect a change in
which program the alternative selection points to. 
Even if you're not running debian now ... pop in a Knoppix and read the
man pages for how the debian developers have implemented
'update-alternatives. It's Just Too Cool.
OK ... you can go back to lounging in front of the AC now :)
/SMichelle