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  • From: "Josep L. Guallar-Esteve" <jlguallar AT maduixa.net>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Liar Liar Pants on Fire!!!!
  • Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2002 15:53:43 -0500


El dia Dimarts 19 Març 2002 02:41 pm, no tenies res mes que fer i vas i
m'envies aquest mail:
> No argument here about that specific point, and no argument about that
> other point you made with that car dealership analogy that Dell's
> advertisement with regard to Linux availability on their regular PCs and
> laptops is confusing and misleading.

OK

> However, the point that I was
> trying to make was that if you are absolutely determined to get Linux on
> a Dell machine, it is still possible to do so, regardless of how
> difficult it may be.

If you are determined, no force on Earth can stop you. But the origin of all
this is about Microsoft pressuring Dell and Compaq to retrieve movements
directed to expand availability of preinstalled Linux systems. Once
preinstalled, is game. I mean, Linux is as easy as any other OS for the
regular Joe and Mary

> If you want to order a very high-end workstation or a server from Dell
> with Linux on it, that seems to be as easy to do as ordering one of
> their PCs or laptops with Windows on it, but that is obviously not
> something that "Joe Sixpack" or "Mary Soccermom" is likely to do. Linux
> is a great server OS and is a very powerful system in the hands of a
> technically very sophisticated user, however I have my doubts as to
> whether Mr. Sixpack or Ms. Soccermom would have any idea what to do with
> it.

Actualy, maybe you can go and read for yourself here. Do not skip comments on
that article: there's many people with similar stories as well:

<http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/03/07/1545228>

The comments, fully extended, are here:

<http://www.newsforge.com/comments.pl?sid=589&cid=0&pid=0&startat=&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change>

> As I'm sure you have guessed by now I come from a very Windows-centric

Like me or my Mom

> background and only have had very limited exposure to UNIX/Linux. About

Well, I had exposure to Unix/Linux from 96 on

> 2 years ago I tried to install Red Hat 5.2 on one of my spare machines
> at home just to see what the hype was all about. The installer was
> pretty slick, and I had no problem getting the OS installed. However,
> when it was done, all I had was a prompt.

Get yourself Mandrake 8.2. Give it a try. Use it for a month or so. Tell me
then about "how difficult it is".

And, for Joe and Mary, get a pre-installed and pre-configured PC with Linux.
Just the one that they get with Windows nowadays.

> Unless you have at least some
> prior experience with UNIX/Linux and know what to do, that prompt is
> useless,

Why do you need a prompt for? If your Linux is already installed, you should
have no problems at all using it.

> Now, I'm sure that a company like Dell wouldn't just put RH Linux
> straight out of the box onto a PC without any kind of customization and
> sell it to consumers. I'm sure they would configure X Windows or some
> other GUI to come up with a decent resolution and pack some sort of
> utilities on there that a consumer can use.

Last time I saw it, Red Hat came with close to 3500 utilities in the
distribution CDs. More than enough to keep you busy for a while.

> However, most software and
> peripheral equipment available that a consumer is likely to use comes
> with Windows support straight out of the box, and getting it to run
> under Linux would be difficult at best.

This was 3 years ago. Most of the stuff gets automagically recognized by any
modern Linux now. Try Red Hat 7.2, SuSE 7.3, Madnrake 8.1/8.2, Lycoiris ....
hardware detection and configuration, no kernel recompiles, wizards, GUI
tools that will make you forget about command line prompts... In fact, what
is a command prompt? :)

No, I'm not kidding



Salut,
Josep
--
Josep L. Guallar-Esteve, QA-Test Engineer, Red Hat, Inc.
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/




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