Debian Gets Win32 Installer

An anonymous reader writes "Debian hacker Robert Millan has just announced the availability of a Debian-Installer Loader for win32. The program, inspired by Ubuntu's similar project, features 64-bit CPU auto-detection, download of linux/initrd netboot images, and chainloading into Debian-Installer via grub4dos. The frontend site goodbye-microsoft.com/ has been set up for advocacy purposes. Here are some screenshots."

Comments

Re:Almost Too Easy?

[donaldm]

From the little I have gleaned from the non Slash-dotted sites it appear that they have a installer that runs under MS Windows that allows you to install their Linux distro be it Ubuntu or Debian (correct me if I am wrong). In principle this sounds great then I ask myself why?

If Linux evangelists want people to move to a Linux OS then you don't want a MS Windows installer you really want a proper Linux installer other wise you are just saying that Linux is a poor cousin to MS Windows and I can assure you that the majority of potential users who do this will eventually go back to MS Windows and usually with a bad feeling to Linux.

I think that a person who is interested in using Linux really needs to use a live CD/DVD first and then if they are interested they go ahead (get some help if possible) and create a dual boot and play with Linux some more. In fact dual booting is not a real solution either because users will eventually fall back to MS Windows because it is too easy to backslide. It is very important if you are trying to convince friends that if they are serious they must switch to a Linux only PC although let them play with a few distros before that and they need to get educated in basic security and System Admin practices.

Before anyone replies and says "What about games" (you can use Wine but you won't have the latest games), "What about MS tools" (I thought the idea was to get away from MS tools), "What about 'insert your excuse here'". The counter to all of these starts with the potential Linux user knowing what they really want to do with Linux. If they are not willing to give up their MS Windows solutions then let them continue down that path because you are wasting your time. This is especially true in a Business environment since Managers are very conservative and the only way to get Linux adopted in the workplace is when the order comes down as a very courageous decision from the top. Oh watch the fun then.

I am quite sure there are Consultants who have gone down the path of trying to introduce a Linux solution who have been shot down by Managers who don't want to learn something new and bring up a myriad of reasons (some may be valid but most aren't) why the business cannot switch. In a situation like this all the Consultant can do is walk away.

In keeping with what I have just said my new Laptop is running only on Fedora Core 6 (no dual boot) and I am using Firefox 2 to post this article. My son even put his legit copy of Guild Wars on it under Wine and it works.