[NCLUG] 'we have met the enemy, and he is us'

Mike Loseke mike at verinet.com
Wed Oct 15 17:06:07 MDT 2003


Thus spake Dennis Clark:
> 
> Bill Thorson wrote:
> > 
> > This is just not true.  Redhat, Mandrake, Suse are all, very much,
> > easier to install than Windows.
> >    Linux:   put in CD, boot, click click click, CD2, click reboot DONE!

 Linux: put in floppy, boot, read fark.com for 7 minutes, done.

 (kickstart NFS install + beefy post-install script.)


> >    Windows:  put in CD, boot, click click click, reboot, click click click
> >         reboot, put in net driver CD, click click click, reboot, put in 
> > scanner
> >         CD, click click click reboot, put in printer CD, click click 
> > click reboot,
> >         put in CDRW CD, click click click reboot,....

 Ghosting winders installs, if you take the time to set it up, is a pretty
slick way to go for an IT orginazation which requires Windows on their
desktops. If you have to do lots of different types of machines it can
begin to be a pain but for the more homogeneous setups, ghosting them is
surprisingly fast, easy and very similar to kickstart. I, of course, only
have second hand info on this stuff but I have seen impressive amounts of
winders machines roll out in a short amount of time, all with organization
specific tools and infrastructure pieces installed.


>    Yeah, uh huh.  Windows is a pain to install if it doesn't go right,
> you do it again.  Unless Redhat has improved a LOT in the last couple
> of years, it is every bit as much of a pain - And the documentation
> stinks if you run into a problem with graphics cards.  Not to mention
> that it doesn't tell you at ALL the difference between a workstation
> and server install.  My last Redhat session was exactly the description
> you gave for the Windows install.  Ick.

 RedHat's installer has come a long way and is very usable. Having said
that, if you then want to do alot of customization, you do need to dig
into the manual, RedHat bugzilla, newsgroups, etc. This is really no
different than windows for things like shiny new video cards. Available
driver support is an entirely unrelated matter when discussing installs.

 For the novice users, installing RedHat is going to be much easier than
Windows unless they are trying to do it on some proprietary frankenstein
box.

-- 
   Mike Loseke    | How do you make a small fortune in racing?
 mike at verinet.com | Start with a large fortune.



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