Re: Why Grub? Must I Switch?

[Clive Menzies <clive@clivemenzies.co.uk>]

On (31/01/05 22:57), Paul E Condon wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 31, 2005 at 09:01:26PM -0800, Karsten M. Self wrote:
> > Revisiting old posts...
> > 
> > on Thu, Dec 23, 2004 at 01:13:31PM -0700, Paul E Condon (pecondon@mesanetworks.net) wrote:
> > 
> > [GRUB/LILO pimpfest deleted...]
> > 
> > 
> > > Just my opinion:
> > > Grub is much more featureful than lilo. It has a scripting language
> > > that can be used during boot to get you out of any trouble that you
> > > may have gotten into by reworking your kernel config. But to use it,
> > > you have to remember how it works. To remember you have to have
> > > learned it features.  When I realized this I reverted to lilo. It does
> > > the job for me. I truly believe grub is better, but I'm not ever going
> > > to learn and _remember_ how to use it. 
> > 
> > The bonus of GRUB here is that not only can you get an interactive shell
> > at boot, but there's a modicum of contextual support, at least insofar
> > as tab-completion is supported.  You can also type 'help' for a list of
> > commands, and 'help <keyword>' for a short but usable description of
> > commands.
> > 
> > It's somewhat similar to DOS, in this regard really.  Though lacking
> > some of the file management utilties.
> > 
> > 
> > Peace.
> > 
> 
> Yes, grub is good. But I'm 72 and have a bunch of things to do in the time
> I have left here. Learning to use grub isn't one of them, and I don't think
> a simple user should struggle with it if they already have a functional 
> command of lilo. 
Well, you have nearly 20 years on me and I take a similar view on what I
should and shouldn't spend time on (there's so much great stuff to
learn).  

My first experience of Debian and Linux was on on old Mac booting from
MKLinux )bootloader on the Mac side.  Since then I've played with Lilo,
which just works on servers with only one operating system, yaboot on
later Macs and Grub.  

Grub, I found very confusing at first but where you are running
different OS's on one machine it is excellent.  I use it on a test machine
which is running Win98, Sarge, Ubuntu, Mepis and others when the mood
takes me.  I also use it on a laptop with WinXP, sid (amd64) and sarge.

Once you are familiar with it, Grub is pretty intuitive.

If you aren't booting multiple OS's .... then I suspect the "devil you know"
is the least line of resistence.  Otherwise, GRub is definitely worth
the effort and it isn't a big learning curve.

Just my 2c ;)

Regards

Clive

> 
> Recent progress in live CD versions of Debian make me wonder as to grub's
> usefulness for error recovery. A live CD is vastly more powerful, IMHO.
> 
> But if one is a newbie with zero knowledge of how boot loading works, it 
> might make sense to study grub, maybe.

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