(LinuxWorld) -- Captain's log, star date 10032002. The enterprise is now orbiting Asheville, NC, after a tedious battle just before departure from dock in California. I suffered an injury, myself, fighting Klingons. Yeah, that's the ticket. Klingons. It was a hand-to-hand battle like the one I had to fight with Mr. Spock on Vulcan. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Oh, who am I kidding? I was tucking in a blanket when I jammed the middle finger of my right hand and snapped the tendon (I am right-handed, naturally). The condition is known as "mallet finger," I presume because the finger from the top knuckle up just hangs there like a hammerhead. It puts a major dent into my ability to touch type, although others tell me my piano playing has improved dramatically. I don't quite understand the comment since I haven't been able to play the piano at all since the injury.

Here I sit, squished between chairs and boxes, since it is difficult to get things unpacked with a splinted finger, hunting and pecking on my keyboard. Fortunately, I have not one but two Internet connections over which to submit my column. I'll explain why as the ship's orbit brings me somewhere within range of the topic of this column, which is (believe it or not), the first in a two-part series on Linux vs. Windows for average-to-dummy users. The topic is especially relevant now that Red Hat and others are finally targeting the desktop.

The rental agency told me the standard means of connecting to the Internet from my townhouse is through Charter Cable. I ordered my Internet service the same time I called for cable service. Then I called Southern Bell to make some changes to my telephone account, and the customer service representative noted that I was within the proper range for DSL and tried to sell me DSL service.

As you may recall from my last column, I have had nothing but problems with SBC/Pacific Bell DSL as far as service is concerned, but I did prefer the performance of DSL to cable access. I figured I'd go for the DSL deal, but I wouldn't cancel the cable just yet. The cable connection would be available a few days before DSL, and I needed access to the Internet as quickly as possible. Having both for a while would give me a chance to see which is faster in this part of the galaxy.

A pitfall in Debian

I had static IP addresses in California for my DSL account and when I had a cable modem. Charter Cable and my lower-rate DSL account use DHCP, so I don't have static IP addresses on the Internet anymore. It hadn't occurred to me I would use DHCP to connect my Debian-based (unstable branch) Linux firewall to the Internet before I left for North Carolina, so I didn't prepare my server ahead of time. It didn't even occur to me that I would have to prepare my server ahead of time. I only realized it could be necessary once I tried to configure my server for DHCP. It wouldn't work. Why wouldn't it work? Because one or more DHCP Debian packages weren't installed.

I couldn't install the DHCP packages, however, because I need Internet access to do that. Catch-22. If I were using a stable branch of Debian, I might have been able to get the packages installed from the same CD-ROMs I used to install Debian. Heck, if I had some extra foresight, I might have created some new CD-ROMs of recent packages or pre-installed DCHP. However, I didn't have that foresight, so I was stuck without communications to Star Fleet.

Debian fanatics will probably be tempted to flame me for using Debian's unstable branch, because that is the source of my problem. Relax. I'm not complaining, I'm instructing. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I'm a nut for using the latest and greatest software, and the only way to even come close with Debian is to use the unstable branch. While I take responsibility for my predicament, I relate it here as a warning for other Debian users who may be as shortsighted or preoccupied by moving chores.

SOHOware to the rescue

Here I am with a cable modem, a firewall/email server, and a workstation, but no way to connect. My installation of Windows 98SE has DHCP installed, so I figure I could use Windows to create a DHCP lease on the IP address. I would write down the info, and then configure Linux manually long enough to get the DHCP packages installed.

I try this clever plan, but it turns out that it is no easy task getting Windows configured, and I give up for the night.

The next morning, I remember that I have a SOHOWARE Cable/DSL router tucked in a box somewhere. I'm able to find it in just a few minutes which, if you could see the townhouse, you'd realize is proof that miracles do occur. I connect the router, power it up, and point my browser at its internal IP address to get to the configuration and status page. I log in as the administrator, type in a few settings, and bada-boom, bada-bing, my server and workstation are both connected to the Internet.

A couple days later, my DSL modem arrives in the mail. That's right. Here in Asheville (or at least in this part of town) DSL is a do-it-yourself process.

I connect the DSL modem to the router, point my browser to the router's IP address, and reconfigure it for PPPoE (PPP over Ethernet) login via DSL. Again, bada-boom, bada-bing, I'm connected in seconds. No muss or fuss with Windows or Linux.

The topic at last

That finally brings us to the point, which I intend to develop further in my next column. Too often we argue over how difficult or easy it is to do this or that in Windows or Linux when the average or dummy user shouldn't be using either to solve the problem. I'm no dummy and I'm not an average user, but now that I'm not running Web servers from my home, I find myself in the shoes of the average dummy. All I want is a simple, relatively safe Internet connection, like any other average dummy, without the risks incurred by connecting a Windows machine or badly configured Linux machine directly to the Internet. The answer turned out to be neither Windows nor Linux, but a dirt-cheap appliance.

Similarly, I suspect we are focusing on some of the wrong issues when it comes to other ease-of-use issues in the debate over Windows vs. Linux. More on that thought next time.