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Is Linux or Windows Easier To Install?
Mark Cappel writes: "Joe Barr, a LinuxWorld.com columnist, compares Linux and Windows installations. He expected Windows to be faster and easier since Microsoft has been at it for 21 years. (DOS 1.0 was released 21 years ago today.) It turns out Red Hat is quicker and less manually intensive."
Debian Sid: 60 MB of upgrades. 20 Minutes including DL.
Windouche 2000: Sp3 and 3 security patches. 80 minutes and 4 reboots.
'Nough Said
grain of salt? the guy's a fucking moron. firstly he should be installing XP, a consumer OS for a consumer girlfriend (not 2K, never designed to be installed by consumers), secondly why did he upgrade 3 different versions of IE? why not just install 2Ksp3 which includes IE6. dumbass. then, he should know an OEM setup from the real thing, no wonder he got a whole bunch of adverts for stuff, and a blank admin password. has this guy never installed a REAL version of win2k before?
For me, Windows 2000 Professional has been the easiest installation I've ever done--even easier than Windows XP.
My Linux adventure: Download RedHat ISOs. Burn RedHat ISOs. Install...core dump to a screen with a page of C++ code and some message about invalid memory allocation. Download Mandrake ISOs. Burn Mandrake ISO. Install Linux. Boot to KDE. Have no idea what to do next because I don't know where to put drivers, or even where to configure TCP/IP settings...so it ends here with a pretty GUI and built in apps but nothing else.
Windows 2000 Professional upgrading from 98SE was about as lengthy but ended up working properly. Install, CD-Key, convert to NTFS, reboot 3 times, start installing device drivers, then reinstall all my applications because over 2/3 of them stopped working when the new OS came. No data was lost.
A fresh 2K Pro install can go from blank hard drive to fully operational system (all hardware installed) in an hour MAX, with 3 "user intervention required" type prompts (locale settings, computer/domain name, CD-Key), and 3 reboots. Win2K detected my DHCP server automatically, grabbed an appropriate IP address, and I went to the Internet and downloaded the proper drivers. 2 reboots later, I was up and running with the latest Detenators, Creative drivers, etc.
Maybe he had wierd hardware, or lots of it, but a 2K Pro installation is hardly a stressful or time consuming experience.
I got a zippy new Dell at work, and I decided to multi-boot between Win2k and Linux. Both are pretty simple, but the problem I had was with driver support. With Redhat 7.3, X had a problem with either my video card or LCD, and that wouldn't work at all. With Mandrake 8.2, X started fine, but it had issues with the USB mouse and the built-in Ethernet.
My point? Well, if I had a driver issue with Win2k (which I didn't, of course, because that's what Dell supports), I could just go to the manufacturer website and dl the driver and away we go. Or use Windows Update and have a pretty good shot at finding something there.
With Linux, it's a much more elaborate and vague search for help when you *do* run into a installation roadblock. That's not a rip on Linux - it does amazingly well in terms of hardware support all things considered. But for the latest and greatest hardware, installation can be a real drag.
Too bad you didn't read the article. It really increases the intelligence of your posts.
MS Word was required by _that_ OEM install of Windows.
In any case you're blaming Microsoft for Sony's fuckup then. So fuck you, bitch!
Fuck you, tubby bitch!