i'm installing 8 operatin system??

[vish786]

hi guys i recently bought 160gb sata disk(i already hav a old sata drive 80gb with winxp installed)......

so i'm thinking of installin

ubuntu
mandriva
opensuse
fedora core
debain
solaris
slackware
knoppix

all this on new hdd disk with 10 gb of space for each OS and a swap file of 1gb(as i hav 512mb ram)... i am using GRUB as my bootloader(hoping tat will work).... after working for few months i will select the OS which is better among others and delete the rest OS....
wat do u think guys... is this a good idea... wat is ur suggestion???? plz reply fast:rolleyes:

[gauravakaasid]

:shock:

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

me too deca-booted after i got my new 250GB HDD 6 months back :D :D :D

[vish786]

me too deca-booted after i got my new 250GB HDD :D :D :D

which all did u install and finally which one u opted.... i would like to know:D

[mediator]

U guys got a lotta time to fiddle around with distros. Instead of trying all linuxes, try PC-BSD,freebsd etc.

[kumarmohit]

:shock::shock::shock::shock::shock::shock::shock: :shock:

Shocked 8 times :))
The last Shock is seperated coz u wanna install Knoppix, a rather rare venture.

[vish786]

:shock::shock::shock::shock::shock::shock::shock:: shock:

Shocked 8 times :))

comeon guys stop making fun... and tell me wat should i do is it a good idea... i mean will it work or not:D

[khattam_]

Would u run each of 'em??

Trust me, you will regret...

[vish786]

Would u run each of 'em??

Trust me, you will regret...
if i am installing obviously i will run them:D.... will keep for few months and after testin i will delete.. simple

[amitava82]

why not try one at a time.. keep it simple.

[kaustav_geek]

vish786
I don't think it to be a prudent thing to do... Almost all of them have a live CD/DVD option. So, instead of actual installation, just get the feel of each of them by running them in Live mode.

That will ease the hassle. Trust me, an octa boot ain't a good idea..

[Anindya]

After u test all the os`es plz do let us know what u found out. Atleast i will wait to hear from u.

[vish786]

After u test all the os`es plz do let us know what u found out. Atleast i will wait to hear from u.

it would take months :p:p

[iMav]

use live cd instead of installing ... makes more sense

[g_goyal2000]

:shock:Yeah, :shock:

[kaustav_geek]

it would take months


Nope. If you are a good learner and observer, getting the hang of 1 distro won't take you more than a week. So, will prolly take you 2 months to try them out completely...

As I said, don't be illogical, go the LIVE CD/DVD way.......

[eddie]

... and tell me wat should i do is it a good ideaYou should not do it, it is not a good idea... i mean will it work or not:D It will work

[Sukhdeep Singh]

Better try each OS in Live CD or Virtual PC using VMWARE rather than messing up your harddrive :D

[kalpik]

Yes, try on vmware or virtualbox!

[kumarmohit]

Even I recommend using Virtualisation, so if anything goes wrong you only have to recover 1 OS only

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

which all did u install and finally which one u opted.... i would like to know:D well actually i tried different versions of same distro to notice how much they had changes , like i installed Fedora from Core 3 upto 6 , then i installed Ubuntu from 5.04 upto 6.10 , also i tried FreeBSD , SCO Openserver , SCO Unixware n many others . if u want i'll type the whole list :D

U guys got a lotta time to fiddle around with distros. Instead of trying all linuxes, try PC-BSD,freebsd etc. actually i meant to say Other Operating Systems except windows

though my HDD is stock full now(200 GB used , thou i'll be backin all that up to dvd's) so i use VMWare now , which is much better n easier . also i mainly learn the command line so even with my pesky 384 MB ram VMWare runs superbly smooth .

Even I recommend using Virtualisation, so if anything goes wrong you only have to recover 1 OS only nah man even if everything goes wrong inside VMWare nothin will happen to your host OS

[vish786]

well actually i tried different versions of same distro to notice how much they had changes , like i installed Fedora from Core 3 upto 6 , then i installed Ubuntu from 5.04 upto 6.10 , also i tried FreeBSD , SCO Openserver , SCO Unixware n many others . if u want i'll type the whole list :D

buddy plz type the whole list i am damn interested... reply fast i am waiting.... plz plz plz:confused::D

Better try each OS in Live CD or Virtual PC using VMWARE rather than messing up your harddrive :D

Even I recommend using Virtualisation, so if anything goes wrong you only have to recover 1 OS only

can u guys put some light on VMWARE OR Virtual PC... i hav no idea wat it is ???:confused:

[kalpik]

^^ You can either download VMWare server from http://www.vmware.com or download VirtualBox (recommended over VMWare) from http://www.virtualbox.org

Im sure you will figure out everything yourself ;)

[kumarmohit]

Microsift Virtual PC 2007 is freeware and its given with Digit in either the April or may Discs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_virtual_PC

If you want a Linux based virtualisation solution, try QEMU.

[kalpik]

No offense, but Virtual PC is just crap.. VMWare and Virtualbox are MUCH better IMHO, and they are free too..

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

No offense, but Virtual PC is just crap.. VMWare and Virtualbox are MUCH better IMHO, and they are free too.. same here , while running Virtual PC i get >50% avg usage whereas while running VMware , CPU usage hardly goes over 10% .

@vish786 , mate u can download a copy of vmware from http://www.vmware.com , then install it , then u just run it , go to file->new n then create a new virtual pc now u can install ny OS in it :)

also this will help http://www.virtual-strategy.com/article/view/1624/

[vish786]

Nope. If you are a good learner and observer, getting the hang of 1 distro won't take you more than a week. So, will prolly take you 2 months to try them out completely...

As I said, don't be illogical, go the LIVE CD/DVD way.......

first thing is live cds or dvds will not hav all the softwares,

secondly if i install on hdd it will b better becoz i can change settings to watever i want, which is not possible if i run live cd/dvd

thirdly live cd may sometimes boot without any problems but if i want to install tat OS then their might be some errors...

fourthly if i use a live cd to run lot of software at a time the system might hang or slow down and applications will take more time to open, but if i install on hdd everything would run faster

fifthly i can install additional softwares and see which OS supports most of the other applications without any problems

sixthly i can learn more things after installing linux on hdd then on live cd/dvd....

seventhly i dont remeber all the things as soon i remember i will post it:D:D

tat is why i am installing on hdd rather than using live cd... i am already using live knoppix dvd...

same here , while running Virtual PC i get >50% avg usage whereas while running VMware , CPU usage hardly goes over 10% .

@vish786 , mate u can download a copy of vmware from http://www.vmware.com , then install it , then u just run it , go to file->new n then create a new virtual pc now u can install ny OS in it :)

also this will help http://www.virtual-strategy.com/article/view/1624/

u hav told earlier u had installed many OS so which OS did u finally select in the end....:confused:

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

u hav told earlier u had installed many OS so which OS did u finally select in the end....:confused: currently toh i hv Only XP n Mac OS X installed on my system , though i regularly check out the latest OS releases . well i would suggest u KUbuntu 7.04 if u want a free , good looking n stable linux system .

also , there's no best operating system , it all depends on what u wanna do n that will decide which operating system you would use .

[vish786]

same here , while running Virtual PC i get >50% avg usage whereas while running VMware , CPU usage hardly goes over 10% .

@vish786 , mate u can download a copy of vmware from http://www.vmware.com , then install it , then u just run it , go to file->new n then create a new virtual pc now u can install ny OS in it :)

also this will help http://www.virtual-strategy.com/article/view/1624/
various version of VMWARE r available like vmware player, and vmware server, etc which one should i download dude

,.:)

[kalpik]

As already suggested, get VMWare Server.. Its free..

[freebird]

if u do try deca boot!,each time u need to get a file system check?

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

if u do try deca boot!,each time u need to get a file system check? n what does that mean ? could u elaborate a bit more plz .

[praka123]

^ the Linux distros may be checking its file systems after a no of boots via tune2fs utillity.so if u boot to any distro also,e2fsck will be starting next time u boot another distro.the frequency will increase if the distros include are many.
this is coz sometimes u'll mount other distro's "/" partn in ur current running GNU/Linux,thus accessing.so...
u can look at /etc/fstab for number "1" of ur "/" partn at the end which is for fs checking.disable it for skipping check or program checks using tune2fs utility.
Assumes that most distros uses ext3 fs by default.

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

^ the Linux distros may be checking its file systems after a no of boots via tune2fs utillity.so if u boot to any distro also,e2fsck will be starting next time u boot another distro.the frequency will increase if the distros include are many.
this is coz sometimes u'll mount other distro's "/" partn in ur current running GNU/Linux,thus accessing.so...
u can look at /etc/fstab for number "1" of ur "/" partn at the end which is for fs checking.disable it for skipping check or program checks using tune2fs utility.
Assumes that most distros uses ext3 fs by default. oh , well i didn't notice nything like this even though i accessd partitions of other distro , must be happening in the background .

[vish786]

guys which partition should i use, ext2 or ext3???

how to create a logical drive in linux??

[freebird]

ext3 is the way for most distros.

[saurabh.sauron]

the maximum I have used is 5, which included XP, 2000, Vista, Ubuntu, Fedora. Now I have three, Fedora, Ubuntu XP.

10 OS's are OK, if u have the time to customize everything (Customising Fedora requires patience). Ubuntu, Suse are good.

I think us should install Ubuntu last, coz it configures the boot loader automatically for all the OS's, otherwise u would spend a long time in manually adding entries for all other linux distros

[vish786]

the maximum I have used is 5, which included XP, 2000, Vista, Ubuntu, Fedora. Now I have three, Fedora, Ubuntu XP.

10 OS's are OK, if u have the time to customize everything (Customising Fedora requires patience). Ubuntu, Suse are good.

I think us should install Ubuntu last, coz it configures the boot loader automatically for all the OS's, otherwise u would spend a long time in manually adding entries for all other linux distros
thanks a lot for that great suggestion of urs dude.... which boot loader does ubuntu use???

[kalpik]

It uses grub only, but it detects all other OS's correctly..

[vish786]

how to create a logical drive in linux???

ext2 or ext3?? which should i use??

i asked earlier no one replied so askin again:(

[kalpik]

use ext3..

[freebird]

how to create a logical drive in linux???

ext2 or ext3?? which should i use??

i asked earlier no one replied so askin again:(
first of all google is ur friend. http://google.com/linux
the normal way is to use command-line.
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/

there are gui-tools available for most distros.
for eg;fedora uses system-config-lvm;check the menus.
I hope u use Ubuntu/Debian too.
In Debian/ubuntu there is lvm2 and u need a patched kernel if u want evms-gui to work.
also check
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=216117

I feel safest is using CLI (vgcreate etc).

This guide shows how to work with LVM (Logical Volume Management) on Linux. It also describes how to use LVM together with RAID1 in an extra chapter. As LVM is a rather abstract topic, this article comes with a Debian Etch VMware image that you can download and start, and on that Debian Etch system you can run all the commands I execute here and compare your results with mine. Through this practical approach you should get used to LVM very fast.
http://howtoforge.com/linux_lvm



^this one is a good tutorial for Debian and Ubuntu.

[kaustav_geek]

first thing is live cds or dvds will not hav all the softwares,

secondly if i install on hdd it will b better becoz i can change settings to watever i want, which is not possible if i run live cd/dvd

thirdly live cd may sometimes boot without any problems but if i want to install tat OS then their might be some errors...

fourthly if i use a live cd to run lot of software at a time the system might hang or slow down and applications will take more time to open, but if i install on hdd everything would run faster

fifthly i can install additional softwares and see which OS supports most of the other applications without any problems

sixthly i can learn more things after installing linux on hdd then on live cd/dvd....

seventhly i dont remeber all the things as soon i remember i will post it

tat is why i am installing on hdd rather than using live cd... i am already using live knoppix dvd...


1.) Who told you that ? Sabayon Live DVD packs all the software you'll ever need and you can use all of them from the DVD itself. I ran the Q4 demo off the DVD and it ran as it would run on a Windows installation.

2.)Yes, thats true, however, to get the exact hang and feel of a system, you don't need to customise each and every option. As pointed out by others, you'll have to spare a lot of time and patience.. Psst..psst, once you customise a system fully, you wouldn't wana use the other OS.. Trust me..

3.)Not the case anymore. All the LIVE CDs/DVDs boot and install equally well.

4.)Why do you at all need to run too many softwares at once ? A system crash while multi-tasking is threatening even on a hdd.

5.)That shouldn't be a problem. Almost all the Distros have an installation/packaging manager, so software compatibility won't be an issue since you'll installing softwares using them , most of the time.

6.)Not necessarily. You will bug this forum no less after you install all the OSes rather than running them off a LIVE CD.. As pointed out, GIYF, but you won't listen...

Ok... I might be sounding thrash and meaningless to you at the moment...
Anyway, go ahead with the task. Best of luck....

[vish786]

1.) Who told you that ? Sabayon Live DVD packs all the software you'll ever need and you can use all of them from the DVD itself. I ran the Q4 demo off the DVD and it ran as it would run on a Windows installation.

2.)Yes, thats true, however, to get the exact hang and feel of a system, you don't need to customise each and every option. As pointed out by others, you'll have to spare a lot of time and patience.. Psst..psst, once you customise a system fully, you wouldn't wana use the other OS.. Trust me..

3.)Not the case anymore. All the LIVE CDs/DVDs boot and install equally well.

4.)Why do you at all need to run too many softwares at once ? A system crash while multi-tasking is threatening even on a hdd.

5.)That shouldn't be a problem. Almost all the Distros have an installation/packaging manager, so software compatibility won't be an issue since you'll installing softwares using them , most of the time.

6.)Not necessarily. You will bug this forum no less after you install all the OSes rather than running them off a LIVE CD.. As pointed out, GIYF, but you won't listen...

Ok... I might be sounding thrash and meaningless to you at the moment...
Anyway, go ahead with the task. Best of luck....

:D:D:D:D i never knew somebody would answer in tat way.... i cant stop laughin at u:D:D

k... let get to d pt... i am followin wat u guys said i hav decided to install only some 4 OS now the other 4 i am not installin.. i am usin virtualisation on them....

[praka123]

Hope U get urself pleased with one distro after "experimentations"
-from an earlier 5-6 OS booting guy.
You will later find that one of the given Linux distros U like and will be getting accustomed with it.
No need for doing this 4-5 or 10 linux distros to boot.
better goto http://distrowatch.com and research.

[kaustav_geek]

i never knew somebody would answer in tat way.... i cant stop laughin at u

k... let get to d pt... i am followin wat u guys said i hav decided to install only some 4 OS now the other 4 i am not installin.. i am usin virtualisation on them....

I myself laughed at the post you made looking at the ignorance in the contents.. And a clarification was necessary. Hence ,I tore apart all the arguments made by you in you earlier post. So, there isn't much in it now...If you are what I see you are,then be careful. You have been pissing me off in various threads with no-brainers .... Please, this is a tech community in which every argument must be based on very sound arguments... And people like me and many many more post here just to help others and share knowledge... Not to flame... Your previous post , which I eventually replied to, has been a sort of a n00bish attempt at flaming and arguing.. No offense meant, but its not a good sign brother.....

And one more thing... laughing at others isn't a very nice thing. It does no more than just piss someone off... Tch..tch.... not at all healthy..
Adios~
Have fun....

[vish786]

I myself laughed at the post you made looking at the ignorance in the contents.. And a clarification was necessary. Hence ,I tore apart all the arguments made by you in you earlier post. So, there isn't much in it now...If you are what I see you are,then be careful. You have been pissing me off in various threads with no-brainers ....

can u tell me in which thread did i do tat.... i just told u tat ur avatar does not look real to me.... tats it.... so dont get pissed off with sillly things re...

Please, this is a tech community in which every argument must be based on very sound arguments... And people like me and many many more post here just to help others and share knowledge... Not to flame... Your previous post , which I eventually replied to, has been a sort of a n00bish attempt at flaming and arguing.. No offense meant, but its not a good sign brother.....

i joined this forum so i can also help others and share knowledge and inturn get help if i get stuck with my computing knowledge... i am not here for time pass...:cool:

And one more thing... laughing at others isn't a very nice thing. It does no more than just piss someone off... Tch..tch.... not at all healthy..


ok i am sorry abt the laugh!!! :(

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

ned this forum so i can also help others and share knowledge and inturn get help if i get stuck with my computing knowledge... i am not here for time pass...:cool:( mate , Frankly you seem to be more of a nuisance , you haven't ever installed a single distro n you're trying to install 10 distros at the first try .

do this , instal onlu ubuntu n get some experience with linux , after that you can test other distros .

[vish786]

mate , Frankly you seem to be more of a nuisance , you haven't ever installed a single distro n you're trying to install 10 distros at the first try .

do this , instal onlu ubuntu n get some experience with linux , after that you can test other distros .
hey... i hav been using linux right from puc(2003).... knoppix, Elx(i am sure u dont know which linux is this), red hat... i hav already used all these OS from past few years for ur kind info.... so mind ur words

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

hey... i hav been using linux right from puc(2003).... knoppix, Elx(i am sure u dont know which linux is this), red hat... i hav already used all these OS from past few years for ur kind info.... so mind ur words oh yeah i forgot i'm talking to a linux guru here :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

guys which partition should i use, ext2 or ext3???

how to create a logical drive in linux?? but the guru doesn't know whether to choose Ext3 over Ext2 or not , or better still how to create partitions in Linux :rolleyes:

thanks a lot for that great suggestion of urs dude.... which boot loader does ubuntu use??? the guru doesn't also know that LILO has been abandoned my almost all distros n that GRUB is used by all new distros . heck Ubutun was launched in 2004 , so guru must be knowing which boot loader Ubuntu uses , how come he's askin us mortals :rolleyes:

how to create a logical drive in linux???

ext2 or ext3?? which should i use??

i asked earlier no one replied so askin again:( guru also doesn't understand simple english , n even after freebird told him to use ext3 he has to ask the same question :rolleyes:

:D:D:D:D i never knew somebody would answer in tat way.... i cant stop laughin at u:D:D guru also doesn't seem to have ny manners ;)

[vish786]

oh yeah i forgot i'm talking to a linux guru here :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

i just told i hav been usin linux... u started pullin my leg tellin tat i am guru:D

but the guru doesn't know whether to choose Ext3 over Ext2 or not ,

till now i hav been usin only ext2 so i asked which is better;)....
or better still how to create partitions in Linux

i had a little idea of creatin logical drive... but never created linux logical drive... becoz i directly mounted windows drive :grin:


if u wanna help me... ur suggestions r always welcome... if u dont want to help then stop bein pain in the ass.... yup one more info dude i already installed mandriva, ubuntu and fedora. now installin slackware.:D

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

i just told i hav been usin linux... u started pullin my leg tellin tat i am guru:D

till now i hav been usin only ext2 so i asked which is better;)....


i had a little idea of creatin logical drive... but never created linux logical drive... becoz i directly mounted windows drive :grin:


if u wanna help me... ur suggestions r always welcome... if u dont want to help then stop bein pain in the ass.... yup one more info dude i already installed mandriva, ubuntu and fedora. now installin slackware.:D lolz , no problem mate , was havin just some fun :D :D

btw try KUbuntu too , i think it's good .

[kaustav_geek]

mate , Frankly you seem to be more of a nuisance , you haven't ever installed a single distro n you're trying to install 10 distros at the first try .

do this , instal onlu ubuntu n get some experience with linux , after that you can test other distros .

Couldn't agree more... :)

[vish786]

@zeehan quireshi... can u come online as soon as u read this msg... i hav some problem with vmware

[cynosure]

if u wanna help me... ur suggestions r always welcome... if u dont want to help then stop bein pain in the ass.... yup one more info dude i already installed mandriva, ubuntu and fedora. now installin slackware.:D

How come this word was not censored:D:D:D
It always hides when I write this!!

[vish786]

^^ You can either download VMWare server from http://www.vmware.com or download VirtualBox (recommended over VMWare) from http://www.virtualbox.org

Im sure you will figure out everything yourself ;)
which r u usin virtual box or vmware??? which is better according to u???

[kalpik]

I use both, but i find Virtualbox a bit faster and better..

[cooldip10]

:shock:
That's a big list

[vish786]

though my HDD is stock full now(200 GB used , thou i'll be backin all that up to dvd's) so i use VMWare now , which is much better n easier . also i mainly learn the command line so even with my pesky 384 MB ram VMWare runs superbly smooth .


which linux OS hav u installed currently in ur system... and tell me whether ur using VMWare or directly booting to the Linux OS????

[vish786]

;-)

[vish786]

no replies :(

[eddie]

If you are looking for a reply from kalpik, you can always PM him :)

[kalpik]

What reply are you looking forward to from me? :-S

[vish786]

What reply are you looking forward to from me? :-S

i wanted Zeeshan Quireshi (http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/member.php?u=13837) reply... thx for ur concern :)

@vish

Don't spam. Always remember what eddie has said... If you want help from a particular member, just PM him. He'll most probably get to you.

u dope... i'm not a newbie to spam here. i just wanted my query solved. instead of starting a new thread for the same.

[Vivek788]

Oh god,I too have 3 distros with Windows seperate,maybe I should reduce to 2 distros maximum and learn and optimize them properly.
Wont ubuntu and debian etch be the best choice?

[vish786]

Oh god,I too have 3 distros with Windows seperate,maybe I should reduce to 2 distros maximum and learn and optimize them properly.
Wont ubuntu and debian etch be the best choice?

dont, ubuntu has a base of debian... so ubuntu and debian are almost similar... use ubuntu and something else ;)

[praka123]

Debian Etch is stable,means it is rock-solid good for servers and corporate uses.U too can use unless u care to check the versions of packages included a little old(but security fixed)
Debian -if u know what differentiates Debian apart from Ubuntu and other distros.U can get Debian running latest softwares if u choose Debian Lenny(testing) apt-pinned with Sid(unstable repo).
I personally run Debian Sid+experimental(apt-pinned)
APT-PINNING how to:
http://wiki.debian.org/AptPinning
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html
^^ ask me,i can help u regarding apt-pinning.
Debian Social Contract
Debian Social Contract

Version 1.1 ratified on April 26, 2004. Supersedes Version 1.0 ratified on July 5, 1997.

Debian, the producers of the Debian GNU/Linux system, have created the Debian Social Contract. The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) part of the contract, initially designed as a set of commitments that we agree to abide by, has been adopted by the free software community as the basis of the Open Source Definition.
http://www.us.debian.org/social_contract
http://www.us.debian.org/intro/about

[vish786]

Debian Etch is stable,means it is rock-solid good for servers and corporate uses.U too can use unless u care to check the versions of packages included a little old(but security fixed)
Debian -if u know what differentiates Debian apart from Ubuntu and other distros.U can get Debian running latest softwares if u choose Debian Lenny(testing) apt-pinned with Sid(unstable repo).
I personally run Debian Sid+experimental(apt-pinned)
APT-PINNING how to:
http://wiki.debian.org/AptPinning
http://jaqque.sbih.org/kplug/apt-pinning.html
^^ ask me,i can help u regarding apt-pinning.
Debian Social Contract

http://www.us.debian.org/social_contract
http://www.us.debian.org/intro/about

wat is apt-pinning dude..??

[praka123]

APT pinning is a feature which allows administrators to force APT to choose particular versions of packages which may be available in different versions from different repositories. This allows administrators to ensure that packages are not upgraded to versions which may conflict with other packages on the system, or that have not been sufficiently tested for unwelcome changes.
In order to do this, the pins in APT's preferences file must be modified,[2] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apt-pinning#_note-1) although graphical front-ends often allow this more simply.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apt-pinning#APT_pinning



Note: Before you consider 'pinning', you might want to check http://wiki.debian.org/htdocs/modern/img/moin-www.png apt-get.org (http://www.apt-get.org/search.php)http://wiki.debian.org/htdocs/modern/img/moin-www.png backports.org (http://backports.org/) to see if the package you want has been backported to your release. and
Pinning allows you to run certain packages from one version (stable, testing, unstable) without the necessity of upgrading your entire system. However, pulling in packages from "later" distributions are prone to pull in libraries as well, which might have you end up with a system that has the disadvantages of stable (old software), the disadvantages of unstable/testing (security support not as good as stable, bugs) without the advantages of either.
At its most basic level, pinning involves two files, /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/preferences.
src:

http://wiki.debian.org/AptPinning
^^ read the hw2 fully

[Zeeshan Quireshi]

a very handy feature indeed

[mehulved]

Debian package management has many nifty features that aren't so well known to many of us here. I came across quite a few while reading 'The Debian Book' (am still to finish it though).

[vignesh]

which one Debian cookbook ? Thats a nice book..

[mehulved]

vignesh 'The Debian Book' by Open Source press. We had discussed about it in another thread, I started that one thinking about buying the ubuntu book.