SystemRescueCD; integrated non-free software

Posted Apr 1, 2004 18:00 UTC (Thu) by mmarsh (subscriber, #17029) [Link]

But the key phrase is "pre-configured". This can make a huge difference,
especially to novice users. I just cross-graded my laptop from RedHat
to Debian (well, really an upgrade, given that it was RH 7.3), and
the installation procedure was really painful. A lot of that came
from a lack of built-in support for certain hardware, regardless of
whether the packages were free or non-free. For instance, I never
had to worry about the modules and fstab entry for my digital camera
under RH -- I just plugged it into the USB port and /mnt/camera
appeared as if by magic (though I still had to mount it). Granted,
I was completely surprised by this, and hence not particularly surprised
when Debian required significantly more effort.

The long and short of it is that for a new user, the more that has
to be configured after installation, the less satisfied the user will
be with the system.

And no, I don't regret the switch to Debian at all, despite the
installation difficulties.