On Thu, 22 Feb 2001, Tony Lambiris wrote:
> if you have a 3com, and you know its model is 3c509, i would hope you had
> enough common sense to load 3c509.o.
Sure. But if you have a LNE100TX, would you know to load tulip.o? :-)
Besides, like I keep saying: If the computer can figure it out for me, it
should! That is, after all, the whole *point* of a distribution: To do the
work for you. :-)
> I agree this would be a 'nice thing to have', but Im sure its not high on
> the list of things to do within the Debian community.
I cannot speak for the Debian community. But like I said, it really does go
beyond "nice thing to have" if you want Debian to be usable by everyone.
As far as whether or not you should want it to be usable by everyone or
not... I would say, yes, you should. Ask Novell about what happens when your
server OS needs someone else's desktop OS...
> I would rather have text based install and have my system work ...
I always use Red Hat's text-mode install. I hate the GUI. But some people
could not get by without it. Choice is the operative factor here. Believe it
or not, Red Hat gives you more total choices in the install than Debian.
Debian lets you tweak what you have more, but you have less to work with in
the first place. :-)
> than a GUI installer and have my system crash after 3 weeks of uptime
While Red Hat does some goofy things, and they've certainly had their share
of broken packages, a system crash is a serious failure, and one unlikely to
be Red Hat's fault. I would guess you had something in the kernel
misconfigured.
> and have to worry about my ftp and lpd ports being open to the world ...
Erm, last I checked, Debian offered FTP and LPD daemons, too. :-)
> ... or even something as simple as not shipping a bunk version of gcc....
> ahem :)
There you've got something. Debian would never have done that. They might
have made it available in "unstable", but never shipped it as their release
compiler. This is why I'm looking at SuSE now. Red Hat 7.0 was a big mistake
in my eyes.
> If you mean Installation types as in a predefined list of sets (eg
> Webserver, Development Server, etc.) then Debian has exactly this.
Ummmm... I thought those were just package sets?
Let me explain. One of the first steps (after picking the language) in Red
Hat is the installation type. You have a handful of options:
Install GNOME Workstation
Install KDE Workstation
Install Server
Install Custom
Upgrade Existing
If you pick "GNOME Workstation", the installer takes over. It partitions,
selects packages, configures LILO, sets up networking, detects hardware,
installs, configures X, and reboots. Pretty much automatic. Almost perfect
for the novice user who doesn't understand things.
If you pick "Server", you are given a list of server types (Mail, Samba,
Web, etc.). You choose as many (or as few) as you want. The installer takes
it from there.
Custom gives you control. It prompts you to set up the partitions, how you
want LILO to work, etc. It then offers a couple dozen packet sets, for you to
select or deselect. C/C++ Development, Electronic Publishing, Web Server,
etc. Or, you can choose "Select Individual Packages", and drill down in as
much detail as you like. :-)
>> - Offers three levels of package selection granularity (installation types,
>> package groups, and individual packages).
>
> See above.
See above. ;-) Debian offers two levels, and none of the turn-key options.
>> - Offers a friendly UI for partitioning.
>
> Again, another "nice thing to have", but not crucial.
Keep telling people to go away, and eventually, they'll listen. :-)
> Storm Linux's installation detected _alot_ of stuff (last I can remember)
> during installation.
So does SuSE's, from what I hear. Neither is Debian. :-)
> Hopefully debian will integrate parts of that code into their
> installer.
I will heartily second that.
> Remember, Red Hat never used to automagically detect things, or had a GUI
> installer.
Indeed. And Debian never used to work at all. Are we talking past or
present? :-)
> Another thing you have to remember, is that Red Hat can hire a bunch of
> people if they need a feature kicked out in a week or two.....
So can Microsoft, but Linux seems to be holding its own... :-)
> ... it would be better for EVERYONE if people took a few minutes each day
> and learned something new about the system.
I disagree. The vast majority of people just want to get their job done.
The computer is a tool, just like their telephone, their pencil sharpener, or
their car.
> Every system has bugs, yes... even Red Hat!!!
LOL! I was never asserting Red Hat is perfect! :-)
--
Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Net Technologies, Inc. <http://www.ntisys.com>
Voice: (800)905-3049 x18 Fax: (978)499-7839
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