[opensuse] Re: Opensuse 11.0 Boot iso

On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:34:35 -0400, Larry Stotler wrote:

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 12:21 PM, Jim Henderson
<hendersj@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
So, by the same logic, I should also be demanding that openSUSE not
provide i586 packages, but i386 packages as well, because I have an old
33 MHz 80386 with 16 MB of RAM (which is sufficient to run a basic web
server on), right? I mean really, there must be *millions* of old
80386 systems out there that *could* be running openSUSE. In fact,
probably many, many more of those than systems that can't have a DVD
added to them for a reasonable price.

Reasonable for people who might need it. Some might not be able to
justify that expense. And I never suggested support for a 386. Just a
CD version. I've seen P4 systems with CD only.

I know you never suggested support for a 386. I was saying "here's
another relatively small market segment; maybe we should satisfy that as
well". It's a point of comparison.

I've seen P4 systems with CD only as well. I nearly purchased one. But
if it were my only computer, I would still be likely to either upgrade
the CD drive to a DVD, do a network-based installation (and if I didn't
know how, I'd ask someone to help me), or borrow a drive if I was too
poor to afford the $20 to buy a new one myself. In fact, years ago I had
a 486 with no CD drive in it and I wanted to install UnixWare. I
couldn't afford a CD drive at the time (the system was completely SCSI),
and I did in fact borrow a SCSI CD-ROM drive from a friend so I could do
the installation.

The number of people who have no friends who could lend them a drive is
going to be very small indeed.

You also could then experience first-hand either the success of doing
something good, or better understand what it is that makes it more
effort than it's worth.

Not being a programmer, I help out by Beta testing.

Same here. I can read code, and I can structure code, but my coding
skills are crap for something as complicated as the kernel. I can write
awk scripts and self-contained C, but nothing in C++ or anything that
requires more than a cursory understanding of programming logic (well,
maybe a bit more; I was a CS major in college). Point being, I'm not
driven to code. That doesn't stop me suggesting solutions in code to the
people who do. Not being a programmer needn't be a barrier to finding
out what it would take.

And how many of those people know *nobody* who has a DVD burner? My
80- year-old mother can get a DVD burned without coming to me to do it.
I know people in South Africa who have access to DVD burning
technology. Saying "I don't have a DVD burner" is just an excuse. Show
me *one* person who doesn't know someone with a DVD burner, and I still
won't believe it.

That's not the point. Living in a rural area, I can attest that I
wouldn't want to have to download an iso, put it on an external drive,
and then take it to somewhere to burn it. That's what's called a
hassle, and a lot of people who are just used to Windows aren't going to
do that.

But you'd be OK downloading 5 or 6 ISOs to burn to a CD? I'm not
following the logic here. Besides, you'd indicated you were talking
about a notebook computer, surely that's portable.

People who are just used to Windows aren't going to take the time to
download an ISO first at all - since Winblows came with the computer,
they'll just use that. The ones who go a step further and download the
ISOs are very likely going to do so because someone suggested it to them
and they did a little homework. My mom isn't going to say "Hmm, I wonder
what this Linux thing is all about" and then proceed to download, burn,
and install the product on her computer alongside or over her Windows
installation. She's going to talk to people, she's going to ask for
help. Most newbie users are like that - they don't make changes without
knowing what they're doing because they don't want their machine to
become a brick that they don't know how to recover.

It seems that there are many people who think that newbies are going to
shoot themselves in the head. I fear that many of those same
hypothetical newbies might go out and buy firearms and not realize which
way to hold the gun. Seriously, the way some act, they might just be
that stupid. Fortunately, that ain't reality.

Oh, so you're talking about PPC as well. And the segment who benefits
gets that much smaller.

So, since openSUSE is one of the few that actually supports Old World
Macs, shall we drop that as well? Or shall we do what's neccessary to
support the hardware we say it will run on? There are a lot of us who
use PPC. So, we should just send that to the landfill? Is that what
you are saying?

Of course not. But developing to a minority interest tends to get things
that overall are more important overlooked.

The beauty of OSS is that those who are in that minority interest have
the power to do something about it themselves.

Jim
--
Jim Henderson
Please keep on-topic replies on the list so everyone benefits

--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Relevant Pages

  • Re: newbie installation question
    ... I tried to burn CD, ... go to DVD first, and if that fails then boot off hard drive. ... you download an image of 715MB, ... So you must burnt your ISO to a CD not a DVD. ...
    (Ubuntu)
  • Re: [SLE] K3B DVDs failing
    ... Have been trying to burn an .iso to DVD to install SuSE 10.0. ... You need to compare the md5sum on the download site to the one that k3b ... There is a 'burning' problem... ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: newbie installation question
    ... I am now going to download it from releases.ubunto.com/jaunty ... go to DVD first, and if that fails then boot off hard drive. ... but tried to burn it on a DVD? ... So you must burnt your ISO to a CD not a DVD. ...
    (Ubuntu)
  • Re: Installing F7 by CD and not by DVD
    ... Is there a place from where I can download some CD isos instead of one DVD iso for F7? ... Download the Fedora 7 DVD iso and put it on a partition in your disk which will not be overwritten during installation. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: SBS 2k3 testing , demo evaluation ect
    ... I have got oryginal installation but I cant working properly withought ... Premium as a 6-CD set and Standard on DVD. ... I want to download it from internet. ... invironment not just on my working server. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)