Bug#235019: acknowledged by developer (closing)
On Fri, 11 Jun 2004, Debian Bug Tracking System wrote:
> I don't think this is worth implementing; the installer now detects
> windows and other OSes and adds them to the grub boot menu automatically
> which will be much nicer for most users than some manual windows boot
> loader setup.
With sarge, a couple of weeks ago I tried to install some brand new
debian pre-packaged 2.6 kernels. It apparently wrecked GRUB's
configuration and made the machine unbootable.
By chance, I had manually reversed the bootloading chain some time
before (i.e., the windows bootloader was loading GRUB), so I could
still boot windows. Of course this is just a particular case, but...
It's probably possible to scientifically prove that GRUB is
technically superior. However, pretending that *every* user will
prefer GRUB over windows' bootloader looks more like religion.
The windows bootloader is simple, robust and easy to configure (not
everything that microsoft does is evil).
Another simple scenario: what about the windows user who just wants to
give debian a try then remove it and reclaim the disk space ?
By the way, last time I tested the installer one could choose where
GRUB was to be installed (MBR or elsewhere). Has this option now been
removed ?
If even "alternative" systems start to assume they own the MBR, life
won't be easy in the future...
I can understand that my suggestion is not important, at the very
bottom of the TODO lists, and that it will never make it in sarge. But
it's a bit harder to hear it's irrelevant.
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