On Saturday 21 June 2003 21:55, Alex Malinovich wrote: > > > > Well, popular reviews are usually aimed at 'new users', or intelligent > > amateurs, and from their point of view the install is a major > > consideration. (Professionals probably won't be reading that sort of > > reviews and the 'just-buying-it-to-play-games-on' crowd won't be reading > > any reviews anyway). I honestly wouldn't recommend Deb to a new-to-Linux > > user. Knoppix maybe (not that I've used it), or Red Hat, and maybe > > graduate to Deb when they have a handle on what Linux is like. > > > > If I didn't have the familiarity with what was going on, gained from > > maybe half-a-dozen Red Hat installs / setup sessions, I think Woody's > > installer would have baffled me. Knowing roughly what to expect is 99% > > of the battle. As it was it took three install attempts before I got one > > (with X and PPP working) that was good enough to switch to. > > My first ever Linux install was done with Potato a year and a half ago. > The only experience I had had with anything remotely linux related > before then was using cygwin for a few months. So essentially I knew a > few basic bash commands. I knew nothing about the kernel, the > filesystem, or anything. I had no real idea what modules were, and the > whole "sources" thing baffled me. And, worst of all, I didn't find out > about this list until AFTER I had a working install. :) > > But I pulled out an old Pentium 133 I had lying around, and started > trying to install Debian on it. After my 2nd try, I had a working > installation. One more wipe and reinstall and I had the basic hang of > the installer. Then it was time to repartition the disk on my actual > desktop machine and get to work. 3 months later, every last semblance of > Windows and proprietary software had been wiped from my hard drive. > (I've since had to install a few closed-source Linux programs/drivers, > but I'm maintaining a relatively free system. I never thought twice > about "stealing" software through the use of cracks while I was using > Windows, but now the very thought of it makes me feel dirty. Both the > stealing aspect and the fact that I had a REASON to do it. Free software > literally lets me sleep better at night. :)
Well, I have no conscience whatever about stealing Micro$oft software. The way I look at it, if I'm forced to use their software for any particular application it's because M$ have managed to coerce almost everybody into using it, squashed any competition, and got obscenely rich by doing so. However, other shareware I do have a conscience about, I've even registered some. ;) > And, just so I can join in the foray of the auto-detect flame-fest here, > if a user doesn't know his hardware well enough to be able to pick it > from a list he shouldn't be installing an OS in the first place. Errr, *wrong*. Much of my gear is second-hand, and of course the first thing the original owners invariably do is lose the manuals. :( My current motherboard is the first one I've ever had a manual for, ditto my S3 VGA card, and I've *never* owned any monitor of a brand that's been listed in the 'X' config options. If I ever help to install Linux on any of my friends' computers, I expect they'll have lost the manuals too. So auto-detect could be very handy. Both with RedHat and Debian, I've found that 'X' configuration was the biggest single problem. Both RedHat *and* Deb failed to come up with any monitor setting that would work, failed to start X with 'generic' monitor, and I had to experiment extensively with XF86Config before it would work. In fact, if I run RedHat I use my S3 card because I can't make it work with my on-board SiS/AGP video driver; with Debian it's the opposite. Yet, both RedHat and Mandrake's graphical installers and Debian's penguin logo display fine with *whatever* card I'm running - what is it the installers know that they won't tell X config ? :( cr -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
