Re: Another "testing" vs "unstable" question
On Thu, 2004-06-24 at 12:58, John Summerfield wrote:
> >
> >>fwiw I was much amused when I first tried Knoppix (it was, I think, a
> >>3.2 beta but it might have been 3.1). The hardware detection is done
> >>with Red Hat's tools.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Why be amused? If RedHat licenses their stuff such that other systems
> >can use it, and it works, it would be foolish to reinvent the wheel.
> >That's one of the reasons people like open source so much.
> >
> >
>
> I know. It was the thought of using RH tools to configure what is
> essentially a Debian system. Given how well RH detects hardware, I think
> it a great shame that the Debian project didn't use some of the RH tools
> to help installing Woody.
>
> I can (and used to) install RHL 7.3 on arbitrary local-computershop
> hardware in fifteen minutes, fully automated.
>
> I gather the name Ian Murdock has some significance here, and that he's
> connected to Progeny. Here's what Progeny says, "Red Hat's® Anaconda is
> the standard installer among Linux distributions. Our port of Anaconda
> to Debian brings the familiar installation experience of Anaconda to the
> rest of the Linux world."
>
> See http://platform.progeny.com/anaconda/
And those comments also point out that Progeny's Anaconda port is
x86-specific. Debian supports a much wider range of hardware than Red
Hat does.
So Anaconda for debian (+RH hardware discovery) is nice for people with
x86 hardware, but *everyone* can use the new debian-installer and its
hardware-discovery framework (which also happens to be largely developed
by Progeny: see http://platform.progeny.com/discover/index.html).
Personally, I think support for alternative hardware is really
important; x86 chips aren't bad, but opening the door for other chip
makers and designers to compete using alternative architectures is good
for everyone. Imagine how much slower our CPUs would be if Intel didn't
have AMD and Transmeta pushing them...and imagine how much harder they
will have to work when PowerPC and others can compete fairly (ie when
the dominant computer OS is not one that is limited to x86 architecture
only).
The debian-installed FAQ has more info (esp. item 4):
http://wiki.debian.net/?DebianInstallerFAQ
Cheers,
Simon
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