Ubuntu CD's for Free

[Michael Hipp]

Jerry McBride wrote:
> On Tuesday 07 December 2004 10:13 pm, Michael Hipp wrote:
> 
>>I have. There is much I like and respect about Gentoo. But until someone
>>cares enough about it to give it a real installer I won't be able to
>>consider it for any kind of serious work.
>>
> 
> 
> Are you serious? Gentoo has been one of the best linux distributions that I've 
> ever tripped over. With Gentoo, you get exactly what you want... anything 
> from a light weight server to a full blown desktop...

I didn't say it wasn't a good distro. It is, in fact, an excellent distro. It 
is just missing one essential feature - the built-in ability to get a system 
up and running in a minimum of time and manual labor.

The ability to tightly control machine configuration is a great feature but it 
is not accurate to imply that other distros can't do the same. The approach is 
different and Gentoo may be able to achieve it to a greater extreme, but it is 
definitely a case of diminishing returns beyond the simple tactic of being 
selective about what packages are installed.

> As for "a real installer"... it has one already. It's called "good 
> documentation" that easily converted to an install script if you are so 
> inclined.

And why would I want to spend my time re-inventing something that every other 
distro has already done for me?

Is Gentoo so superior on the back end that it entirely makes up for the the 
excessive costs on the front end? Perhaps. But the ROI calculation isn't obvious.

> Gentoo isn't for everyone, but not to included for lack of a frilly gui 
> installer is... well... stunning...

Please don't put words in my mouth. I said nothing about a frilly gui 
installer. I said a *real* installer. A very non-frilly installer like Debian 
would be fine. Even those auto install scripts for Gentoo that are rumored to 
be in the works would probably be fine.

Last time I installed Fedora, it involved maybe 15 minutes of actual labor 
followed by about an hour of listening to the DVD grind while I did something 
productive elsewhere. Debian is somewhat more.

Last time I installed Gentoo it was several hours of heads-down tedious manual 
labor followed by about a day and a half of endless compiles. I can't make 
money that way.

People rightfully complain about the excessive "religion" in the Debian world 
over what is puritanical free/non-free. Unfortunately Gentoo is crippled with 
a worse religion about keeping out the riff-raff and measuring the length of 
the male body parts over who can come up with the most difficult install process.

I think the Gentoo folk are a bunch of weenies since none of them dig sand to 
make their own integrated circuits. ;-)

Michael