On 10/11/07, Nick Rout <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Wed, October 10, 2007 10:53 pm, Christopher Sawtell wrote: > > On 10/10/07, Don Gould <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> Chris has set up a whole distro mirror. > > It's not really a 'mirror' per se. i.e. it's not connected to the > > Internet. You have to turn up at the St. Albans Community Resource > > Centre with a minimal amount of small change and copy the files > > yourself using the Windows facilities available. > > Please leave a blank line between the quote and your reply, much easier to > read.
Yes, I do see the point. > Why is this resource on a windows computer to start with? Simply because it's there, and we have free access to it. > Surely we can come up with a computer with a hard drive and a dvd writer to > run linux on for this resource? I would hope so, but as there is an adequately suitable computer available to us at no cost I thought it sensible to use it. At the moment I see the provision of this archive of distros as an experiment. If members, their friends, and the general public, vote for it by using it, then I would be fully in support of us providing hardware for it, but not until its popularity is proven. > >> People can just bring a memory stick. > > A memory stick, of sufficient size, or a USB rotating hard drive is by > > far the best. > > Remember that your filesystem has to be Windows compatible, and if you > > are going to get an image of a DVD of something over 4GB I understand > > that that means NTFS. > > windows handles ext2/3 with the addition of a simple and free driver. By the same token, Linux can handle NTFS using the ntfs-3g system. The St. Albans Neighbourhood Network ( NN ) are a bunch of consumate Microsoft Windows devotees. They are taking a huge leap out of their comfort zone even considering having Linux files on a machine. At the moment, I'd rather not push them any further. > And why can't I bring a laptop and plug it into their network and transfer > the iso to my hard drive? The management of the St. Albans - possibly with good justification - are absolutely paranoid about their network being attacked by people with neredowell intent. Currently they do not want to make connections to their network available to strangers. I suppose we have to respect that. > > No. The CD copying facilities are the Windows program called 'NERO'. > > Take care that you select the facility which allows a bit-for-bit copy > > from the file to the CD. > > A Google search on "nero cd iso burning instructions" as the search > > term gives dozens of good-looking documents. > > nero is not the only option. nero is not free afaik. there is a freeware > tool mentioned here > http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm - but see my other > email on this subject. See above comment about the devotion to M/S and please apply that to allied commercial products as well. -- Sincerely etc. Christopher Sawtell
