Yep, post install of windows 2000 takes *a lot* longer then the install itself. To have a proper install you need to download the correct drivers for the NIC, Video Card, Sound Card and Motherboard INF file. Sure you could run it with what Microsoft says in their infinite wisdom it should be using but that is just plain silly and suicidal. A lot of problems on a windows box that you have a hard time figuring out or explaining can be solved by using the latest driver from the manufacturer... not from Microsoft. And if it's a server then you definatly should not be using the default drivers for things like the NIC. They are software people, they know jack squat about hardware, especially hardware someone else manufactured. Then you have service pack 3 (windows 2000) and service pack 1 (windows xp), reboot after that. DirectX, and reboot. Internet Explorer, and reboot. Whatever other updates are left, some may require separate downloads, installs and reboots before you can continue with the rest of them. The only reason you need to reboot a Linux box after an update is if you upgrade the kernel.
> On Sun, 2002-12-01 at 19:33, Kevin Anderson wrote: >> Gentoo took me almost 4 hours to compile (stage 1, 2, and 3), on a >> Xeon 700smp box. > > Just remember that Gentoo takes longer to install than a binary distro. > >> Starting from nothing (Gentoo/Debian) and adding packages takes a long >> time. Likewise, >> Starting with more crap than I need (Red Hat/etc Put Windows in this >> category) and deleting it after the fact (Plus upgrading out of date >> packages, and patching) takes just as long as Windows. > > Upgrading packages in Linux always takes less time that in Windows. > Whether it's apt, up2date, urpmi, or YOU it is just a matter of telling > it to upgrade and off it goes, d/ls all the packages and installs them. > It took me 3 hours to upgrade a Win 98 box since I had to reboot after > every upgrade, and once the system came back up there would be an > upgrade for the upgrade I just installed. That alone is reason enough > for me not to want to use Windows. > >> Windows 2000 reboots exactly once during the install process. Same as >> Linux > > As I said above it's post install that is the killer. > >> I'm not done with a server for at least a day, regardless of the OS. >> Maybe I'm slow. I dunno. But I do find Windows faster. Setting up >> Printers is easier with Windows (What's the IP address, OK, Done) is >> easier than with Linux (Configure CUPS/LPR/LPRNG/Whatever, Configure >> Samba, Set up Samba to autoDL drivers) > > I don't have any problems with printers. Modern versions of Red > Hat/Mandrake/SuSE always seem to detect and configure my printers at > home and at work. Samba on the other hand can be a bitch, but once you > have it setup for your network you can just copy the config. file to any > new installs and it will work fine. Mandrake is pretty good about > setting up a simple samba server. You just tell it to let users share > files, and with the GUI any user can share a folder in their home dir. > just as easily as in Windows. > > Jesse
