On Sun, Mar 18, 2007 at 07:51:07AM -0300, D G Teed wrote: > > I agree that the kernel within the installer is something > needing to be updated more often. Except that this means that the kernel in the installer needs to be installable as a default kernel, which means that it must also be supported by the kernel team and security. There is a lot of work involved in that. > I regard Debian as serious > production class server OS, but there are others who weigh > everything on the installer experience. I've heard it said that the reason Debian users generally don't care about the installer is because it is something you only use once :-) > We know it is possible to > update the kernel after the install, but if the installer doesn't > support the mobo chipset and disk controllers, it presents > a catch-22 because you can't install it to update the kernel. Good point. > There are workarounds, but they are very time consuming, and > a major strike against adopting Debian versus the commercial > brand Linuxes. > Except, that the commercial brand Linuxes suffer from the same problem. They just tend to update their installers more frequently. Windows XP has the same problem, only many people never noticed once the installer was 5 years old, since people get windows preinstalled or get some customized restore CD from the OEM. > We need to keep Debian from appearing to be a basement > hacker's work. Well, Debian is the most often derived-from Linux distro in existence. I'd definitely say that qualifies it as being more than a "basement hacker's work." > It makes less difference to me than to > managers who evaluate it and don't know (and refuse to learn) > the difference between the kernel and the OS. Such managers > are already freaked out about open source and the > high number of one-developer Linux distros out there. Why are they freaked out by one-developer Linux distros out there? They don't even have to pay attention to such distros if they don't want to. > They don't > see Debian mentioned in many press announcements, so > it is difficult to demonstrate how prevalent and robust > Debian really is. > Netcraft is helpful in this respect :-) > Making things work for current hardware is one of the main > things that will differentiate between a "works for me" type of > distro, and a "works for everybody" well supported distro. > Why? As I said, other distros have the same problem, they just tend to update more frequently so it is not as visible. Regards, -Roberto -- Roberto C. Sánchez http://people.connexer.com/~roberto http://www.connexer.com
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