RE: LINUX Workstations -- MIDRANGE-L

By the way, folks, in sort of a corollary to the statement below, if you
reread the thread, you'll see that I got at least four or five
completely different suggestions involving three or four different Linux
variants, with answers ranging from FTP installs to .iso images.

The distributions are incompatible from a software standpoint.  Device
drivers, while more plentiful than in the early days, are still
occasionally hit or miss, especially for the oldest or newest hardware.

This is NOT software 101 stuff here, folks.  And while it may be fine to
play with this kind of thing in my own home in my copious free time, I
can't in good faith tell my clients to switch to it.  Even with its
security chasms, its bloated, buggy software and its Draconian licensing
policies, Windows still is an environment less likely to frustrate and
frighten my client base.

That's sad, but true.  And you know, it would probably only take a few
things to make that go away:

1. Easy CD install.  Someone should create a dedicated Linux-burning
installer.  Download it, stick a CD in your CD burner (most people have
them these days) and run the package.  All it does is burn CDs and ask
for new ones.  Especially if it worked on DVDs; the whole thing would
probably fit on a good sized DVD-ROM.

2. A couple of pre-formatted Linux configurations.  Say a terminal
server and terminal, a standalone graphical development workstation, an
email server.  Basically punch in your IP address (or the IP address of
your DHCP server) and go.  I know it can be done - NetMAX does it, calls
them "network appliances" and sells a slew of them.

3. Some sort of wizard to help you select the right Linux variant.
RedHat?  Mandrake?  SuSE?  Debian?  Which is right?  Which is wrong?
When are ALL of them wrong and I should instead choose FreeBSD?

Anyway, those of you who are so adamant about the joys of the Open
Source movement, take a little time to do the grunt work, the finishing
touches that will make your system acceptable to the masses.
Personally, I think a lot of Linux geeks LIKE the aura of
impenetrability, it makes them powerful.  If Linux was as easy as
Windows, they might lose some mystique.

If I'm wrong, prove me wrong.  Create a web site that tells me which
Linux I should download, lets me download a setup file to my Windows
machine which in turn burns a CD.  If you want to be nutty about it,
make it a Java application and let me run it anywhere I have a JVM and a
CD burner.  Let me boot my hardware off that CD and answer a couple of
basic questions (admin user ID and password, IP or DHCP address) and
install the thing.  When done, I want the machine to boot up to a
graphical interface that asks me the user ID and password and I can get
started.

Do that, and we might be talking.

Joe

> From: Joe Pluta
> 
> But that means that if I want to teach someone to use
> Linuz, then EVERYTHING I have to do to get Linux going, I am going to
> have to write down in excruciating detail for my readers.  So the more
> steps, the more uncertainty, the more confusion, the more chances for
my
> readers to get frustrated and give up.
> 
> On the other hand, they can get a Dell, dude, download Eclipse, hit
> install, and we're writing business code.