I have been a user of debian for many years on a number of computers as well as other GNU/Linux systems. Recently I discovered that my i686 32bit machine was out of support and they were not supporting 32bit machines any longer. After some bad experiences with Tumbleweed I decided that I would install stretch so I could get experience of it when I am forced to upgrade my firewall (running jessie with a whezzy kernel).
So today I d/loaded the net-install iso for debian 9.4 and wrote it to a usb stick. Then tried to install on the target (Thinkpad x40). Nice idea but it refused to use the wifi, so I proceeded via wired ethernet hoping I could resolve the issue later. In the process I think I determined the wifi problem was the need for firmware for the Intel ipw2200 hardware. After rather a long time it said it was installed so I rebooted -- a big mistake! I was hoping for a computer where I could write programs, mainly with xterm, emacs (with elisp) and C. I had asked for no gnome no kde no xfce... I usually run fvwm on X but I got a screen with nothing obvious to do. I did get icons (spit!) offering games and firefox but no xterm -- I was expecting to install emacs myself as I use a very recent system -- but it was in effect not a computer but some kind of toy. I do not play computer games and thought I had said not to install any Since then I have failed to get wifi although I have got the firmware -- but no instructions on how to install. Got aptitude installed and discovered load of gnome stuff cluttering up the disk (which is limited) and memory (ditto). How do I get a working computer? I can ssh in from elsewhere but that is not what I need. And I need wifi. I have never had this problem in 35 years on unix and linux, and am very disappointed. I suppose I can install things like csh and possibly xdm, exim from source etc but without an xterm..... I also noticed eventually that the duff screen came from tty2 rather that tty7 that I was expecting. Sorry for the rant but I really was expecting simplicity as before. ==John ffitch