Re: SEUL: Comments about the loopback idea and the waste of resources

[brick@global.co.za]

In <19970701204833.1231.qmail@sidney.remcomp.fr>, on 07/01/97 
   at 08:48 PM, jfm2@club-internet.fr said:



>There is also a general remark: there are a lot of people proposing to
>redo things already existing specially in the install part.  The loopback
>idea instead of UMSDOS is an example.  Another is the idea of building a
>SEUL install starting from nil.  Sorry but what is wrong with the RedHat

I don't think anyone was really suggesting that.  What does rather seem
the best way to me would be to build a better interface on top of the
package management tools from debian or redhat, or something similar.  And
there is a very good reason for the loopback idea: UMSDOS is S-L-O-W, and
wastes space (FAT allocation units and all).  With the loopback idea there
would be the same initial installation advantages as with UMSDOS, but none
of the long-term disadvantages (speed, et al)

>4.2 install?  It is a piece of cake, needs only one floppy and it is able
>to connect to an FTP site and install from there without need of a CD. 
>Well two things are wrong, partitionning and the network part.  Fix the
>network and give him either a better fdisk (one who does the job with
>little user intervention) or at least a utility who bases on free disk
>space to advise the user about how to partition.  Hack the install a bit
>to add UMSDOS support and you have an instant user friendly install.  How
>much time for developping that: a couple of man/weeks at most
>(discounting the better fdisk).  And yes we can do it: RedHat is GPLed.

Well, I have to disagree here.  I have yet to come accross a distribution
of which I would classify the installation as easy for most computer
usesers, even the more technically savvay than avarage user.  Debian and
Redhat was quite easy for me (i like dselect's idea, but it could be
implemented much better), there were still considerable trials and
tribulations to overcome, especially wrt the setup of X and SVGALIB...

>Sorry but the real weakness of present installs is not being difficult to
>install (RedHat and LST are pretty easy), it is later when using them
>than users have problems.

>So I really don't see why use precious resources in grandiose install
>projects when there are more important problems to solve in the area of
>the day to day use of Linux.

Well you must of course consider that it is impossible to even get to the
day to day running of a Linux system if it can't be installed....  I think
both directions are equally important, but the initial hurdle is
installation....

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brick@global.co.za
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