[support] (noob) non-front /node page?

I've posted to the post-install forum without result; perhaps my post is just too long, or I shouldn't ask multiple questions in a single post? http://drupal.org/node/258969 So here I'll just ask one at a time, but you can respond either here or in a comment there. I see that /node/ acts by default as the "front page" using the promote option. Can "promote" be set to send the items elsewhere, leaving /node/ available for me to use for my /news/ path? Thanks in advance.