Civileme:
This was the full LM 8.0 PowerPack set -- development, servers, docs,
Star Office -- I checked every package on the list. I have no idea as to
how many applications that included, but df -h says there are about 2.4
GB of files on the drive. Sorry, but I didn't check on how much space
Win98 used. (It didn't use it for more than an hour.)
BTW, the LM times included the XFree configuration, whereas the Windows
video parameters couldn't be set until the video drivers were loaded.
(In fairness to Microsoft, I don't think that Trident 975 chips existed
when Win98SE was released.) As for Windows apps, this was pretty damn
lean -- it didn't even include Solitaire (but neither did the first
Mandrake installation). Of course, it did include all of the AOL/MSN
garbage.
Finding drivers and codes wasn't that big a deal. First, because Lazarus
is very much a stripped down machine, not many were required. Second,
experience has taught me to keep all of those disks in one pile, and to
make sure that any codes are clearly marked on them. Documentation is
another story -- but real men don't need manuals. Third, the goal wasn't
to have a well-tuned and current installation, just enough to be up and
running. (And I think that we would all agree that no installation of
Windows can be considered complete without an anti-virus program.) But
you're quite right -- if this had been a real Windows installation, I
could look forward to many hours at the MS update site, and lots and
lots of reboots. The drill would be repeated as each new application is
loaded, along with an alarming depletion of my cash reserves.
The biggest hassle in the whole exercise was getting the Windows upgrade
version to install on a blank disk -- it's not exactly straightforward,
and I'd forgotten some of the dodges. Mandrake, on the other hand, had
no qualms about overwriting the Windows installation.
The next step is to install LM 8 on my main machine. My plan is to do a
few backups, then a full install including some repartitioning and
reformatting -- but to leave /home alone.
My conclusion: All of that stuff about how hard it is to install Linux
is crap. Pretty much all that I did was click my mouse and let the
system do what it wanted to do. Other than for the partitioning and
package selection, about the only change that I made in Mandrake to the
default entries was the mouse setting -- even the graphics card and the
dreaded VIA chipset were detected correctly.
Regards,
Carroll
civileme wrote:
>
> On Wednesday 20 June 2001 17:29, Carroll Grigsby wrote:
> > Civilme:
> > I ran a test today that may be of interest. I'm in the process
> > of assembling a second computer ("Lazarus") from some old
> > stuff that I've accumulated; eventually, it is to be a server
> > for a home network. Right now, Lazarus consists of:
> > TMC Socket 7 motherboard
> > AMD K6-2-500 CPU
> > 128 mb RAM
> > Maxtor 15 gb HD
> > Trident 975 based video card
> > Creative CD-ROM
> > Logitech wheelmouse on PS/2 port
> > Generic floppy and keyboard
> > NO printer, modem, sound card
> > The test consisted of doing default installations of Win98SE
> > and LM 8.0, and comparing the elasped time between booting the
> > installation CD and logging in. The results were as follows:
> > Win98SE: 0:27
> > LM 8.0: 0:24
> > I then deleted the Mandrake installation, and re-installed it,
> > but this time I chose expert, server partitioning, and
> > selected ALL of the packages. Total time: 0:39.
> >
> > Note that the Windows installation time does not include the
> > time for partitioning and formatting the hard drive (0:28 with
> > Partition Magic), nor the time to load the graphics and VIA
> > drivers. It does, however, include the time to feed my old Win
> > 3.1 floppies to prove that I was entitled to do an upgrade. Of
> > course, with Mandrake, the disk operations are included in the
> > installation time, and neither drivers nor 7 year old disks
> > were necessary. OTOH, Windows really shuts down in a hurry if
> > there's nothing else installed!
> > Regards,
> > Carroll
> >
> > civileme wrote:
> > > A friend of one of the folks here is finishing a Ph.D. in
> > > mathematics. He uses an IBM laptop and he was running
> > > mandrake 7.1. Recently, he installed 8.0. It didn't like
> > > his mouse, so he used an alternate image and installed
> > > kernel 2.2.19 and set up that one in the bootloader. His
> > > total time to install was 1.5 hours.
> > >
> > > Now to keep someone else happy, he had to install PowerPoint
> > > on the same laptop.
> > >
> > > He tried the Win98 restoration disk. It was missing so many
> > > drivers that he despaired of ever finding them all.
> > >
> > > He bought windows ME. The CD wasn't bootable. He restored
> > > 98 and tried to use it to start the ME disk. The program
> > > told him that this was a CD for computers without windows
> > > and that he needed to buy the upgrade edition.
> > >
> > > He tried Windows NT. He had to seek professional advice
> > > (from the staff of a linux company because Microsoft wasn't
> > > helping) to get it installed. Then he discovered drivers
> > > simply were NOT available for some of the features he needed
> > > to run power point.
> > >
> > > He tried ME again, this time generating the famous 98 boot
> > > disk that is the closest thing to a swiss army knife
> > > Microsoft ever produced, Well, stage one--he couldn't
> > > format the partition.
> > >
> > > He booted into linux and fired up disk drake and took care
> > > of that ornery partition, even formatting it.
> > >
> > > WindowsME install program upchucked saying some nonsense
> > > about 64K clusters which it did not support.
> > >
> > > OK NOW the windows98 boot disk could format the partition.
> > > 4K clusters were verified.
> > >
> > > And ME still complained about 64K clusters and shut down.
> > >
> > > So, with 4 days and the purchases of two systems wasted, he
> > > is using Konqueror on the web to track down Microsoft Win98
> > > drivers for his notebook. Then he will finally be able to
> > > load PowerPoint, we hope, unless it wants to see a different
> > > version of Windows, like XP.
> > >
> > > I am beginning to believe that if I took someone completely
> > > ignorant of computers, then he could install linux and have
> > > a fully functioning system a lot sooner than with windows.
>
> Yep, it does.
>
> :-}
>
> I wasn't thinking of time but of the necessity in almost all
> cases to dust off cases for CD Keys, drivers, and whatnot. In
> addition, how big is that installed windows? How many
> application programs does it offer, stock? If you did a 2-disk
> installation of 8.0 with all the servers, you did about 800
> application program loadings in addition to the base system.
>
> But thanks for the info--I am saving it so the next time I find
> myself at the next table to a microsoft engineer or such, I will
> have something. (The one I was at the next table to last night
> for dinner thought that we had to recompile the kernel just to
> add a driver.)
>
> Civileme
