Good thing that Linux, et.al. is making such tremendous progress in this area -- 'convenience'.
I. As one extreme, one can pick-n-choose (down to which particular font, lib, etc. one wants) their way to the 'perfect' lean-n-mean configuration for their Linux box.
II. Or, one can pick a 'packaged' set of features: e.g., 1. desktop (browsers, editors, email, multimedia, etc.), 2. developer (tools, languages, libs, etc.), 3. server (DB's, webservers, Samba server, etc.), 4. Internet (router, firewall, caching, etc.)
III. Pick a 'package' as a starting point, then pick-n-choose what 'extras' one wants.
IV. For the enterprise, one can create-n-save a 'precise configuration' that then can be mass replicated any number of times (with no per-seat fees, etc.!)
PREDICTION: It is only a matter of time (when the 'market' is ready) until one is 'widely' able to purchase the PC, laptop, etc. with Linux, et. al. preloaded--as easy as passing through Wal-Mart.
For the record -- my 'had to do' comparison: Which is easier to load from scatch? Linux or Windows?
A friend of mine offered to pay me $100 to 'rebuild' his virus-eaten DELL laptop. I thought--mistakenly--an easy 100-spot! Boy, was I ever wrong!
I have spent OVER eight hours thus far--after finally downloading and burning on CD all the necessary driver updates, etc.
I have fed the Laptop over 20 different CD's--still have another set of 8 CDs to go.
I am constantly asked to 'reinsert' a CD that it just finished accessing 2 or 3 CD's back!
I have lost count of how many times the machine had to be 'rebooted' -- some of the CD's had several 'pre-installed' applications.
The drivers conveniently provided on the DELL 'install' CD's were wrong!
I had to go to DELL's website to download the 'correct' ones before the graphics, sound, modem, etc. would work properly--initially came up with VGA (16-color 640x480 resolution, NO sound, NO modem, etc).
Installation of each individual driver required its own trip through plug-n-play discovery, specifying the location of the correct drivers, reboot with my fingers crossed, etc.
Yep, rebuilding a 'crashed' Windows machine is a real 'convenience'! Don't you agree?
So, I wonder? How much time did the DELL technician need to create the 'master load' that then was replicated on hard drives BEFORE the laptop was even built!
The Linux install? Well, it took about 30 minutes to go through the menus of options (which system libs, tools, fonts, etc. did I want), and about 90 minutes to 2 hours for the 3 CD's to be loaded decompressed and installed.
Yes, the Linux install correctly identified all my devices--mouse, graphics card, sound card, NIC, CD-ROM, etc.
At the end, I elected to create the repair/boot floppy. That's it! Reboot, login in, and start working!
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Good thing that Linux, et.al. is making such tremendous progress in this area -- 'convenience'.
I. As one extreme, one can pick-n-choose (down to which particular font, lib, etc. one wants) their way to the 'perfect' lean-n-mean configuration for their Linux box.
II. Or, one can pick a 'packaged' set of features: e.g., 1. desktop (browsers, editors, email, multimedia, etc.), 2. developer (tools, languages, libs, etc.), 3. server (DB's, webservers, Samba server, etc.), 4. Internet (router, firewall, caching, etc.)
III. Pick a 'package' as a starting point, then pick-n-choose what 'extras' one wants.
IV. For the enterprise, one can create-n-save a 'precise configuration' that then can be mass replicated any number of times (with no per-seat fees, etc.!)
PREDICTION: It is only a matter of time (when the 'market' is ready) until one is 'widely' able to purchase the PC, laptop, etc. with Linux, et. al. preloaded--as easy as passing through Wal-Mart.
For the record -- my 'had to do' comparison: Which is easier to load from scatch? Linux or Windows?
A friend of mine offered to pay me $100 to 'rebuild' his virus-eaten DELL laptop. I thought--mistakenly--an easy 100-spot! Boy, was I ever wrong!
I have spent OVER eight hours thus far--after finally downloading and burning on CD all the necessary driver updates, etc.
I have fed the Laptop over 20 different CD's--still have another set of 8 CDs to go.
I am constantly asked to 'reinsert' a CD that it just finished accessing 2 or 3 CD's back!
I have lost count of how many times the machine had to be 'rebooted' -- some of the CD's had several 'pre-installed' applications.
The drivers conveniently provided on the DELL 'install' CD's were wrong!
I had to go to DELL's website to download the 'correct' ones before the graphics, sound, modem, etc. would work properly--initially came up with VGA (16-color 640x480 resolution, NO sound, NO modem, etc).
Installation of each individual driver required its own trip through plug-n-play discovery, specifying the location of the correct drivers, reboot with my fingers crossed, etc.
Yep, rebuilding a 'crashed' Windows machine is a real 'convenience'! Don't you agree?
So, I wonder? How much time did the DELL technician need to create the 'master load' that then was replicated on hard drives BEFORE the laptop was even built!
The Linux install? Well, it took about 30 minutes to go through the menus of options (which system libs, tools, fonts, etc. did I want), and about 90 minutes to 2 hours for the 3 CD's to be loaded decompressed and installed.
Yes, the Linux install correctly identified all my devices--mouse, graphics card, sound card, NIC, CD-ROM, etc.
At the end, I elected to create the repair/boot floppy. That's it! Reboot, login in, and start working!