[Tfug] ubuntu

[John Karns]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 4:56 PM,  <sitkaa at email.arizona.edu> wrote:
> Does anybody do this for Linux or the BSD's? That is provide custom
>  install CD's
>  for particular machines. I didn't think anybody did because they
>  thought it was
>  economic unrecoupable.

This has been rendered unnecessary, for reasons explained below,
except in cases where one is working with specialized (non-commodity),
or otherwise highly customized hardware.


>  > And that's with an install CD customized for the target machine.  It's
>  > much worse when one installs from a generic install CD, then has to go
>  > searching for appropriate drivers.
>  >
>  > --
>  > John
>
>  Anyway, all I really want to do is figure out how to provide a helping
>  hand for
>  everyone. Making linux easier to install, with all the drivers already set-up
>  and whatnot custom for each machine, this would help push linux over the top.

What I'm trying to say here is that, for the most part, _it already
does that_.  I respectfully suggest that you might find it more
productive to go ahead and DL & burn an installation CD. I've already
mentioned that you don't even have to install it to boot / run to see
how it does with the detection process on any particular machine.


>  So would having it do everything that windows can do, but easier, this is how
>  to make linux better. Linux could easily be the dominant OS. The is actually
>  very little momentum in the software world, especially when so many things in
>  the open source world are gifts of effort, freely given for the good of all.

This is also already the case.  Linux is, IMHO, already vastly
superior to anything MS ever had.  One important reason that Linux is
so far ahead of MS OSes is that since version 2.0 (the stable branch
of the tree, anyway - I never followed the development branch very
closely) of the kernel (mid-1990's), it has had run-time loadable
modules which are the drivers for system peripherals.  They can be
loaded and unloaded at any time, which doesn't require rebooting the
machine.  That, in combination with major improvements in device
detection, is what really gave Linux a big boost toward ease of
installation.


>  Making it as simple as possible is really the only solution.

How difficult is it to put a CD in the CDR drive and reboot?

-- 
John