From: Martin Ling (martin@nodezero.org.uk)
Date: Tue May 02 2000 - 09:52:45 MDT
On Tue, May 02, 2000 at 08:13:53AM +0100, Charlie wrote:
>
> It's also worth noting that installability is _not_ the yardstick by
> which operating system performance and usability is measured; it's just
> the first speed-bump on the road to usability, which is why magazine
> reviews tend to fetishize it. (I speak as a sometime magazine reviewer,
> albeit a bit of an eccentric one :)
Specifically, as I mentioned before, it's only of particular
significance in Linux reviews because for most new users the issue is
one of installing in addition to Windows. This raises two issues,
both of which are additional problems not faced by users installing
Windows onto a clean disk, or reinstalling.
- Partitioning. The hard disk will already be filled by a Windows
partition. The application PartitionMagic probably derives an awful
lot of its sales from the spread of Linux :-) (I notice that one of
the most overlooked Linux software projects is the GNU parted program
- which provides similar functionality and could when complete be
integrated into installation programs. I have done a good deal of
testing with the development versions, and it does work.)
- Dual booting. The installation must also provide a means for the user
to select either operating system at startup.
Martin
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