Re: Installation
On Wed, 19 Sep 2012 09:43:25 -0400, The Wanderer wrote:
> On 09/19/2012 09:34 AM, Camaleón wrote:
>>> And what about the users who *don't* want to learn, they just want to
>>> have and use a working computer?
>
>> As I already mentioned, they should go for something that suit their
>> needs, like a tablet or something prebuilt that provides the less
>> hassle to their minds. Linux (as we know) is not for them (or yes, but
>> then it has to be properly packaged, managed, delivered and supported
>> by Google or any other company).
>
> That addresses the "installing" problem, but not the "managing" one,
> unless you mean that the "properly supported (by the vendor)" part is
> supposed to take care of any problems they may have with ongoing use of
> the system.
IIRC, that was precisely one of the goals (or "key points", if you
prefer) of Google's Chrome OS: limited hardware + limited software +
limited functions = happy and never-to-be-worried users.
Now seriously, I already mentioned that the OS installation process is
not the problem for users to keep linux but the "afterwards", the day-to-
day issues. And here is where the user's attitude becomes so important
and vital for the matter: well informed users (and users who are
interested in learning how their systems work) will look into the proper
places to solve their problems while careless users will just say blow it
away (i.e., uninstall) when they suffer from any problem.
And while this is true for both windows and linux users, the formers
still have the advantadge of being around another windows users that
solve their problems.
>>>> The requirements have not changed that much (can't tell for Vista and
>>>> 7)
>>>
>>> Ah. That could be the source of confusion.
>>
>> I really doubt it. And I doubt it because some things do not change
>> over the time which means you still have to know how to partition a
>> hard drive, how to boot from CD or what a driver is ;-)
>
> You still have to know how to boot from CD, yes, but on some systems the
> boot sequence is pre-configured to try that automatically - and even on
> ones that aren't, I don't know of any where it's more complicated than
> "press the right key during POST".
Yes, but as I already mentioned the netbooks installations can make the
installtion process even harder for Windows users.
> For the others - no, IIRC the Windows Vista-and-later install process
> does *not* require you to know how to partition a hard drive, or what a
> driver is.
(...)
Neither does the Linux installer (it defaults to a predefined partition
scheme and uses ext3/ext4 as filesystem). But still a basic knowledge on
hard disks and partitioning is desiderable to avoid a faulty hard disk
scheme that will last years...
>> Are you sure that you installed Vista and 7 completely _from scratch_?
>> Because Windows OEM installations are always -regardless the version-
>> quick and take little time but we are not talking here about this, you
>> know...
>
> I'm not sure how you define "from scratch".
Then we have a problem here, Houston.
A Windows installation "from scratch" is when you go to the shop and pay
$250 USD for a copy of Windows 7, return to your home, proceed with the
installation and... oh, surprise! Is that a BSOD? >>;-)
> It was from an install DVD, not a "configure the as-shipped
> installation" first boot, at the very least... but the install DVD was
> manufacturer-provided, so I can't swear that they didn't customize it,
> though I don't think I remember there being supported ways to do that.
That's an OEMized DVD (or CD) Windows installation which is very
different of what we are debating here (OEM installers do have a very
limited GUI-based wizard which can be easily finalized by a few of
clicks).
Greetings,
--
Camaleón
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