I tested Ubuntu live cd, and found the menu was stripped down, similar to what is found in Beatrix Linux.
Also, did not like the file manager provided, I'm an Emelfm fan.
Tried to listen to internet radio stations on Shoutcast, and found that Ubuntu only does.ogg stations, so had to google that to find an alternative. There is no alternative to Shoutcast, really, so they need to fix that. Almost all the livecd distros have some kind of shortcoming becomes noticed with testing and use. I try and work with each one for a while to see just what I can get it to do. Keeps me busy.
One gets used to the Gnome wm in Ubuntu, but I would like KDE. Sorry to see Debian going without KDE.
In my Knoppix remaster, (screenshots in signature), I default to IceWM to keep it lite, but also have Fluxbox and KDE. One can switch back and forth if needed. It's true that Knoppix puts all kinds of programs in the menus, and that probably is confusing to a Windows user trying a Linux desktop out. That's probably why Ubuntu limits the menu, and it is nice and simple to be sure. Very much like Beatrix. Other problem with the livecd Ubuntu is the long bootup. Knoppix is much quicker, and does provide a way to restore personal settings. I did not find that in Ubuntu anywhere. I'm running SLAX 5.0.5 now, and can restore my programs and settings at bootup from a big file called slaxconf.mo on another partition. SLAX uses KDE, but can boot into Fluxbox. I added Firefox and Opera8, and the SLAX configsave did keep all of that, something that Knoppix cannot do in a restoration. It takes a remaster to do that. The latest Knoppix has Firefox, almost everyone else has put it in their livecd distro by now, including a new SLAX popcorn edition.
In 20+ years of PC use I have never been infected by malicious software of any kind. Ever. I've seen office windows boxes infected with about:back virus all the time. I'm running Windows 98 with Firefox, and Kerio firewall right now, and according to my Kerio logs, my machine is constantly under attack. As a precaution, I don't do any online banking on this box.
Can't imagine how no infection would occur, unless the machines were not connected to the internet, and no floppies with drivers were inserted from machines that had been connected.
I did use Arachne 1.70/MSDOS and had no problems with that.
Normally, I do use Knoppix, and have a Knoppix 3.9 cd downloaded last night, that I'll try next on this box. Fairly sure that won't have virus problems.
I remastered DSL 6.2, and often run it from the hard drive as a/knoppix folder, with a loadlin setup on older Windows 98 machines. Provides a nice alternative to windows. I had to do that remaster for two reasons, DSL went to an isolinux setup that would not boot on a lot of my machines, and they did not have Firefox.
Since then, then they have a syslinux version, and also include Firefox. I did, however, use a different Fluxbox style, that made the menu easier to see on laptop screens. DSL still has a fluxbox style that is, in my opinion, hard to see on some screens. My fluxbox style is also used in my Knoppix 3.4 remaster, screenshots in my signature. In that remaster, I also have icewm as default, and KDE.
Only thing really unusual about my Knoppix remaster is the several mouse cursor themes available, and easily selected and used in any window manager. I don't have that in the DSL remaster, however, but did run the size of that one up to about 75 MB with the additional programs detailed in the link above.
I do use loadlin to boot a knoppix remaster, Damn Small Linux on this computer. There is a/knoppix folder on the hard drive, and I don't have to use the cd at all. It is possible to boot from the cd, and then use the bootfrom cheatcode to boot Knoppix. That way the cd drive can then be freed up, and you can play music or burn cd's. Running off the hard drive is faster than running off the Knoppix cd. Nothing is written to the hard drive as you use it, except when you want to save your configuration. That would be your email settings for Kmail, and other items. It is limited in what it can save, but useful nonetheless.
(I am assuming here that Windows as such would not exist today if it were not for Bill Gates.) Here goes: So you want a world without MSDOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, XP, with all their admitted faults? Without those as a benchmark, would KDE be here today? How about Loadlin? Go check 'em out if you want to see how they might be related in some way to the products Microsoft has brought out.
We, of the open-source world, would not have the PC's around in such great numbers to install our distros on, if it were not for Windows.
The one thing that Windows does is bring a PC to market that Boots to X, Soundcard Works, everything else works, and is engineered to do just that before the box shows up at the store.
Sure, I get a thrill when a Linux Distro boots to a decent X configuration. I loved Mandrake 8. You could go back and forth till you got it just right. Windows users don't know what we are talking about there. They just turn the box on, and the GUI appears. With XP, it is fairly fast, too. Because of the requirements of Windows Longhorn, we have the new dual core processors coming on the scene just this week from Intel and AMD. Soon, computers with these processors will be available.
Dell already has their Model 9100 with the Dual Core Intel model D, for $100 extra. (they have 3 more, for extra $$)
Would Intel and AMD have spent the money, and brought them to market in a world without Windows? Didn't Bill Gates say he wanted lots of processing power, memory, and other advanced features for Longhorn? Because of that, we have these new machines available.
We'll all benefit in the long run because Windows is around.
I've been at it for over 50 years. Sure wish PC's came along back then. I did ham radio stuff, building transmitters, receivers, antennas, etc. to hone my technical skills on a basic level. All those methods come in handy today, with what I do. (See signature)
I use and test various livecd linux distros, and on a reasonably powerful computer, with broadband, it can be easy to use. There is a lot of confusion, however, on the restoration of personal settings, and on some distros, that is not easy to do. Some of the best ones have not yet gotten that right. There are other problems, such as a sound card that won't work. I use Knoppix, and have remastered it to include some of the most often used popular programs. Take a look at the screenshots in my signature. I think the way I have it set up, the remaster would be easy to demonstrate to non-techies, and some of them might be able to use the OS on a daily basis.
Still requires an "Admin" to guide them along, and answer all questions. I include a detailed guide for those willing to try and work with it by themselves.
This remaster is not, however, designed for the newby, like the Mac OS is, I wanted to include the tools one would need to work on web pages, as long as they are able to write html, and willing to design graphics using GIMP, for use in the pages. I did, however, put a Firefox button on the toolbar, and a Shutdown button for use when the day is done.
All we can do is try and come up with something that can be run on PC's, that is an alternative to Windows, and safer to run on the internet. If one has the money, however, the Mac can't be beat.
A lot of folks have already invested in a PC, and may have gotten their Windows installation infected or otherwise hard or impossible to use. So they have to do something to save the day.
Didn't Michael Dell just buy 100M of Redhat stock last week? He is not going to let go of that, so Microsoft would not have all of the shares, if they "bought redhat".
Only problem I have with the SuSE Live Eval CD is that it sometimes takes a couple of tries to boot on my Dell P-4. What is up with that. Also, I have to add Firefox, but I do that easily with a pen drive. Overall, once I get it running, it is great. Would not want a world without SuSE, any more than I would want a world without XP. I use 'em all.
Reminds me of the story of the underground A-Bomb that was supposed to blast a hole in the mountains North of Los Angeles, to let the fresh air from the desert flow into the valley, and flush out the smog. (1960's) Idea cancelled, on liability lawsuits concerns. Might have worked, and L.A. would be smog free today, due to new landscape.
I tried to find something on this story on Google, but failed.
Wonder if it would run on a PII, 128 MB, with 4 MB graphics? I'm testing an old Gateway 2000 G6 266M, and the 72 pin memory I have put in the 4 slots is expensive.
If I did not already have it, I would not go buy memory for that now, just for this project.
This box has a PII, and with 128 MB RAM, I get decent results with SuSE 6.3, and have been testing Knoppix and DSL LiveCD Linux. They both use more of the RAM, but do ok with the SuSE's Swap file available. The key here is the graphics card, 4 MB, as far as Knoppix is concerned. (See my Knoppix remaster screenshots below)
I doubt I would be able to run this version of XP here, or afford it if I could buy a copy legally. My idea is to run as good an OS as one can on older hardware, and to run several on each box. It can be a challenge to set each OS up, but gives me an idea of what can be expected. Also not sure if installing this form of XP, (if it would) could foul up what I already have. I'm using a 500 MB MSDOS primary HDD, and a 2 GB Caviar secondary HDD (with SuSE). The MSDOS drive has a menu, and SuSE is selected from that using Loadlin. The MSDOS drive has the personal configs for both LiveCD Linux's.
I just got ahold of an older (1997) Gateway computer, air cooled, and the floppy drive is full of lint, etc. I have a cat, and he really has the air full of pet hair all the time, getting pulled in, by the fans, into the computers around here.
Interesting idea, oil cooling, but not what I expected, the entire board being in the oil. I don't suppose pet hair could get in that, if the container is sealed. Did inherit a HP box once, owned by a guy with two big shaggy dogs. That little computer was full of pet hair, to the extreme. This guy might be onto something.
I wonder what, if anything, would happen on a livecd linux system running Firefox if an.exe were generated by a web site?
As long as the livecd system is running and up, the box might be/could be owned for some purpose, but once the machine is powered down, then what?
In addition to my own remaster, my favorites are Damn Small Linux 1.1, SuSE LiveEval, and PCLinuxOS. I do use usb pen drives on these for restoration of personal settings, but only the PCLinuxOS uses a persistant home directory, running all the time you are up. Stuff could be written there, and reappear next time.
I came up with a simple cover box for the advertisement banner area in my Knoppix remaster. (I put Opera 8 in there) The box can be rolled up to view the ads if desired. All I objected to was the flashing ads, making the browser hard to use for some. Also, one can use Knotes for the same purpose, and that will remember the placement and size of the note, and will, if set to the "on top" level, cover the ad banner. Otherwise, buy a key. Opera 8 is very good, and worth it. It takes a little longer to boot up than Firefox, however. I understood that the memory problem in Firefox 1.03 was to be fixed by 1.1, according to the Mozillazine forums.
Concerning rebooting X... As far as the drivers are concerned, we livecd folks are stuck with what we have in the remaster, I suppose. I base off of Knoppix, and it's a big deal to upgrade the base.
But, I have my mouse cursor selection setup rebooting X for KDE and Fluxbox, but not IceWM.
In IceWM, one just restarts IceWM.
Windows has allowed cursor changes on the fly for some time, but I have to reboot X in my remaster to switch between the 6 cursor themes with the exception of IceWM.
Sounds like something out of a spy movie. But, eventually, if you are somewhere, talking and being seen by a camera, "they" will listen in on you, before your data enters the webcam. You'll have to move around, and take the $20,000 device with you. They'll still find you. Spy stuff. Consider the Alantic Wall.
The processors tested are the expensive ones, the AMD Athlon 64 4000+ is $643.00 at newegg, more than a lot of complete PC computers cost nowadays.
Although this is a dramatic step in the right direction, the industry needs to use this technology to reduce cpu power consumption for the mainstream cpu's being sold to the average PC buyer.
I say PC buyer, but I don't want to ignore Apple here, and their nifty little Mac Mini. That thing does not look like it consumes much power.
They still have "Stella" shouting contests to honor the scene in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),featuring Marlon Brando's plea to Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski. Wonder if that has something to do with the choice of names for the computer.
People will tune in to see if their content was picked or not.
That really works, with me, at least. I tuned in the internet radio station rock chicks radio, and they let you dedicate a song, with a short message. I waited quite a while, as the line was long, for my song, and message to appear. Eventually gave up, but the concept works. I just looked at their site, and there are 195 people listening. Bet some of those are waiting for their dedication to appear.
The average PC buyer in my town does not go out and buy Microsoft software. It is included with the PC's they buy. Some of the add-on's such as Office are really expensive, too much so. I think I bought the last copy of MSDOS that CompUSA had here, and paid way too much for it, but I needed it at the time. I'm not paying $200 for an OS alone, when Wal*Mart will sell a PC for $600 that is more powerful than I need, with XP preinstalled.
Microsoft's sales to manufacturers were down probably because they came up with a per-copy price for oem installers such as Dell that was too low. That way, there would be no chance that any competition could get the oem installer contract away from Microsoft. What is it, $40.00 per copy for XP?, or is it less than that. Merrill Lynch told me that Microsoft will have trouble in the server OS market too, as Redhat, for instance, comes into play.
Only Macintosh has an OS, Tiger, that can compare to XP, and that's not suprising when you consider the close support and cooperation between the hardware designers/manufacturers and the two platforms. Linux as such can only succeed if they can get a contract with a PC manufacturer, of some size, and have all of the installed hardware work with the OS. preinstalled. There are some limited examples of that. For the most part, I get good results with most LiveCD distro's as far as the GUI is concerned, but it goes downhill from there, on such necessities as the sound card, for instance. PCLinuxOS, for instance works very well, and has an icon on the desktop to install to hard drive. Others do too. One is supposed to preview the OS with the LiveCD to see if everything works before installing it. Some of the installer scripts are flawed also. Microsoft has not been faced with those problems as the computers are designed to work with their OS, and are delivered to the stores like that. I can remember rows of Windows 3.1 boxes at Office Depot, all able to just be turned on, and quickly, your desktop is ready for use. The average buyer now expects that.
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I tested Ubuntu live cd, and found the menu was stripped down, similar to what is found in Beatrix Linux. .ogg stations, so had to google that to find an alternative. There is no alternative to Shoutcast, really, so they need to fix that. Almost all the livecd distros have some kind of shortcoming becomes noticed with testing and use. I try and work with each one for a while to see just what I can get it to do. Keeps me busy.
Also, did not like the file manager provided, I'm an Emelfm fan.
Tried to listen to internet radio stations on Shoutcast, and found that Ubuntu only does
One gets used to the Gnome wm in Ubuntu, but I would like KDE. Sorry to see Debian going without KDE.
In my Knoppix remaster, (screenshots in signature), I default to IceWM to keep it lite, but also have Fluxbox and KDE. One can switch back and forth if needed.
It's true that Knoppix puts all kinds of programs in the menus, and that probably is confusing to a Windows user trying a Linux desktop out. That's probably why Ubuntu limits the menu, and it is nice and simple to be sure. Very much like Beatrix.
Other problem with the livecd Ubuntu is the long bootup. Knoppix is much quicker, and does provide a way to restore personal settings. I did not find that in Ubuntu anywhere.
I'm running SLAX 5.0.5 now, and can restore my programs and settings at bootup from a big file called slaxconf.mo on another partition.
SLAX uses KDE, but can boot into Fluxbox. I added Firefox and Opera8, and the SLAX configsave did keep all of that, something that Knoppix cannot do in a restoration. It takes a remaster to do that.
The latest Knoppix has Firefox, almost everyone else has put it in their livecd distro by now, including a new SLAX popcorn edition.
Sound issues?
That's one of my main problems as an end-user tester of livecd linux distros. I do have oddball equipment, to be sure.
In 20+ years of PC use I have never been infected by malicious software of any kind. Ever.
I've seen office windows boxes infected with about:back virus all the time.
I'm running Windows 98 with Firefox, and Kerio firewall right now, and according to my Kerio logs, my machine is constantly under attack.
As a precaution, I don't do any online banking on this box.
Can't imagine how no infection would occur, unless the machines were not connected to the internet, and no floppies with drivers were inserted from machines that had been connected.
I did use Arachne 1.70/MSDOS and had no problems with that.
Normally, I do use Knoppix, and have a Knoppix 3.9 cd downloaded last night, that I'll try next on this box. Fairly sure that won't have virus problems.
I remastered DSL 6.2, and often run it from the hard drive as a /knoppix folder, with a loadlin setup on older Windows 98 machines. Provides a nice alternative to windows.
I had to do that remaster for two reasons, DSL went to an isolinux setup that would not boot on a lot of my machines, and they did not have Firefox.
Since then, then they have a syslinux version, and also include Firefox.
I did, however, use a different Fluxbox style, that made the menu easier to see on laptop screens. DSL still has a fluxbox style that is, in my opinion, hard to see on some screens.
My fluxbox style is also used in my Knoppix 3.4 remaster, screenshots in my signature. In that remaster, I also have icewm as default, and KDE.
Only thing really unusual about my Knoppix remaster is the several mouse cursor themes available, and easily selected and used in any window manager.
I don't have that in the DSL remaster, however, but did run the size of that one up to about 75 MB with the additional programs detailed in the link above.
I do use loadlin to boot a knoppix remaster, Damn Small Linux on this computer. There is a /knoppix folder on the hard drive, and I don't have to use the cd at all. It is possible to boot from the cd, and then use the bootfrom cheatcode to boot Knoppix. That way the cd drive can then be freed up, and you can play music or burn cd's. Running off the hard drive is faster than running off the Knoppix cd.
Nothing is written to the hard drive as you use it, except when you want to save your configuration. That would be your email settings for Kmail, and other items. It is limited in what it can save, but useful nonetheless.
(I am assuming here that Windows as such would not exist today if it were not for Bill Gates.)
Here goes:
So you want a world without MSDOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98, XP, with all their admitted faults?
Without those as a benchmark, would KDE be here today?
How about Loadlin?
Go check 'em out if you want to see how they might be related in some way to the products Microsoft has brought out.
We, of the open-source world, would not have the PC's around in such great numbers to install our distros on, if it were not for Windows.
The one thing that Windows does is bring a PC to market that Boots to X, Soundcard Works, everything else works, and is engineered to do just that before the box shows up at the store.
Sure, I get a thrill when a Linux Distro boots to a decent X configuration. I loved Mandrake 8. You could go back and forth till you got it just right.
Windows users don't know what we are talking about there. They just turn the box on, and the GUI appears. With XP, it is fairly fast, too.
Because of the requirements of Windows Longhorn, we have the new dual core processors coming on the scene just this week from Intel and AMD.
Soon, computers with these processors will be available.
Dell already has their Model 9100 with the Dual Core Intel model D, for $100 extra. (they have 3 more, for extra $$)
Would Intel and AMD have spent the money, and brought them to market in a world without Windows?
Didn't Bill Gates say he wanted lots of processing power, memory, and other advanced features for Longhorn? Because of that, we have these new machines available.
We'll all benefit in the long run because Windows is around.
I've been at it for over 50 years. Sure wish PC's came along back then. I did ham radio stuff, building transmitters, receivers, antennas, etc. to hone my technical skills on a basic level. All those methods come in handy today, with what I do.
(See signature)
There are other problems, such as a sound card that won't work.
I use Knoppix, and have remastered it to include some of the most often used popular programs. Take a look at the screenshots in my signature. I think the way I have it set up, the remaster would be easy to demonstrate to non-techies, and some of them might be able to use the OS on a daily basis.
Still requires an "Admin" to guide them along, and answer all questions. I include a detailed guide for those willing to try and work with it by themselves.
This remaster is not, however, designed for the newby, like the Mac OS is, I wanted to include the tools one would need to work on web pages, as long as they are able to write html, and willing to design graphics using GIMP, for use in the pages.
I did, however, put a Firefox button on the toolbar, and a Shutdown button for use when the day is done.
All we can do is try and come up with something that can be run on PC's, that is an alternative to Windows, and safer to run on the internet. If one has the money, however, the Mac can't be beat.
A lot of folks have already invested in a PC, and may have gotten their Windows installation infected or otherwise hard or impossible to use. So they have to do something to save the day.
Didn't Michael Dell just buy 100M of Redhat stock last week? He is not going to let go of that, so Microsoft would not have all of the shares, if they "bought redhat".
Only problem I have with the SuSE Live Eval CD is that it sometimes takes a couple of tries to boot on my Dell P-4. What is up with that. Also, I have to add Firefox, but I do that easily with a pen drive.
Overall, once I get it running, it is great.
Would not want a world without SuSE, any more than I would want a world without XP. I use 'em all.
I tried to find something on this story on Google, but failed.
I'm testing an old Gateway 2000 G6 266M, and the 72 pin memory I have put in the 4 slots is expensive.
If I did not already have it, I would not go buy memory for that now, just for this project.
This box has a PII, and with 128 MB RAM, I get decent results with SuSE 6.3, and have been testing Knoppix and DSL LiveCD Linux. They both use more of the RAM, but do ok with the SuSE's Swap file available. The key here is the graphics card, 4 MB, as far as Knoppix is concerned.
(See my Knoppix remaster screenshots below)
I doubt I would be able to run this version of XP here, or afford it if I could buy a copy legally. My idea is to run as good an OS as one can on older hardware, and to run several on each box.
It can be a challenge to set each OS up, but gives me an idea of what can be expected.
Also not sure if installing this form of XP, (if it would) could foul up what I already have. I'm using a 500 MB MSDOS primary HDD, and a 2 GB Caviar secondary HDD (with SuSE). The MSDOS drive has a menu, and SuSE is selected from that using Loadlin. The MSDOS drive has the personal configs for both LiveCD Linux's.
I have a cat, and he really has the air full of pet hair all the time, getting pulled in, by the fans, into the computers around here.
Interesting idea, oil cooling, but not what I expected, the entire board being in the oil. I don't suppose pet hair could get in that, if the container is sealed.
Did inherit a HP box once, owned by a guy with two big shaggy dogs. That little computer was full of pet hair, to the extreme.
This guy might be onto something.
That ought to be a lot of fun, in addition to providing a way to run another OS on your Mac.
As long as the livecd system is running and up, the box might be/could be owned for some purpose, but once the machine is powered down, then what?
In addition to my own remaster, my favorites are Damn Small Linux 1.1, SuSE LiveEval, and PCLinuxOS. I do use usb pen drives on these for restoration of personal settings, but only the PCLinuxOS uses a persistant home directory, running all the time you are up.
Stuff could be written there, and reappear next time.
I came up with a simple cover box for the advertisement banner area in my Knoppix remaster.
(I put Opera 8 in there) The box can be rolled up to view the ads if desired. All I objected to was the flashing ads, making the browser hard to use for some.
Also, one can use Knotes for the same purpose, and that will remember the placement and size of the note, and will, if set to the "on top" level, cover the ad banner. Otherwise, buy a key. Opera 8 is very good, and worth it. It takes a little longer to boot up than Firefox, however.
I understood that the memory problem in Firefox 1.03 was to be fixed by 1.1, according to the Mozillazine forums.
At first, they had a sign on it saying "No Coins!" as the thing got stuck when too much weight was placed in the container.
Now, the changed the sign to "Ask Teller before sending coins."
Apparently, if you have a bunch of rare coins, she will want to discuss your deposit over dinner, before allowing you to send them through the tube.
As far as the drivers are concerned, we livecd folks are stuck with what we have in the remaster, I suppose. I base off of Knoppix, and it's a big deal to upgrade the base.
But, I have my mouse cursor selection setup rebooting X for KDE and Fluxbox, but not IceWM.
In IceWM, one just restarts IceWM.
Windows has allowed cursor changes on the fly for some time, but I have to reboot X in my remaster to switch between the 6 cursor themes with the exception of IceWM.
But, eventually, if you are somewhere, talking and being seen by a camera, "they" will listen in on you, before your data enters the webcam. You'll have to move around, and take the $20,000 device with you. They'll still find you. Spy stuff.
Consider the Alantic Wall.
Didn't stop the Allies.
Toshiba ships all of their machines with Windows, although I do have a Toshiba 4015CDS laptop that runs my Knoppix remaster quite well, thank you.
Although this is a dramatic step in the right direction, the industry needs to use this technology to reduce cpu power consumption for the mainstream cpu's being sold to the average PC buyer.
I say PC buyer, but I don't want to ignore Apple here, and their nifty little Mac Mini. That thing does not look like it consumes much power.
They still have "Stella" shouting contests to honor the scene in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951),featuring Marlon Brando's plea to Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski. Wonder if that has something to do with the choice of names for the computer.
That really works, with me, at least. I tuned in the internet radio station rock chicks radio, and they let you dedicate a song, with a short message. I waited quite a while, as the line was long, for my song, and message to appear. Eventually gave up, but the concept works. I just looked at their site, and there are 195 people listening. Bet some of those are waiting for their dedication to appear.
Microsoft's sales to manufacturers were down probably because they came up with a per-copy price for oem installers such as Dell that was too low. That way, there would be no chance that any competition could get the oem installer contract away from Microsoft. What is it,
$40.00 per copy for XP?, or is it less than that. Merrill Lynch told me that Microsoft will have trouble in the server OS market too, as Redhat, for instance, comes into play.
Only Macintosh has an OS, Tiger, that can compare to XP, and that's not suprising when you consider the close support and cooperation between the hardware designers/manufacturers and the two platforms. Linux as such can only succeed if they can get a contract with a PC manufacturer, of some size, and have all of the installed hardware work with the OS. preinstalled. There are some limited examples of that. For the most part, I get good results with most LiveCD distro's as far as the GUI is concerned, but it goes downhill from there, on such necessities as the sound card, for instance. PCLinuxOS, for instance works very well, and has an icon on the desktop to install to hard drive. Others do too. One is supposed to preview the OS with the LiveCD to see if everything works before installing it. Some of the installer scripts are flawed also.
Microsoft has not been faced with those problems as the computers are designed to work with their OS, and are delivered to the stores like that. I can remember rows of Windows 3.1 boxes at Office Depot, all able to just be turned on, and quickly, your desktop is ready for use. The average buyer now expects that.
Well I'll talk to all the little germs in my kitchen and see if they can arrange themselves into a new box for me!