I had an epiphany today.

I followed the advice on how to fix a problem by inserting a Debian
woody disk, rebooting and following the instructions.  I did that to
solve a Slackware problem I was having.  I have come to the conclusion
that Debian/Slackware fanatics and Red Hat/SuSE fanatics are like
Painters and Sculpters, respectively.  The Debian fan starts with a bare
OS and adds pieces, much like how a painter starts with a blank canvas
and creates a masterpiece.  The SuSE fan starts with everything and
removes packages, like how a sculpter starts with a big block and chips
off everything that doesn't look like the masterpiece he wants.

I was finally able to solve my Debian problems by inserting SuSE CD#1 of
7, and rebooting . . .

Cheers,

George