[dundee] [jtsmoore@revolution-os.com: Re: Screening of Revolution OS]

[Jonathan Riddell]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2003 at 06:58:19PM +0100, Andrew Clayton wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-07-21 at 17:44, jim wrote:
> > I would love to see a preinstalled version of linux to compaire with 
> > windows preinstalled.
> > 
> 
> www.dnuk.com
> www.xinit.co.uk
> 
> are two...
> 
> 
> > I had to reinstall Redhat yesterday but it was pretty fast for a clean 
> > install. Windows XP and 2K both take a long time.
> > Mind you I still wounder about the ease of installing software once you 
> > get your computer home for new users comparied to windows.
> 
> Hmm, some kind of install shield wrapped around rpm/deb, would do the
> trick.
> 
> Though if you have an rpm or deb, it's pretty easy anyways...

Unfortunatly the lack of binary compatibility means you have to get
the exact right .rpm or .deb for your distribution version.  

Plus dependency resolution is always going to be less than perfect for
programmes which arn't included in your distributions CDs or a handy
apt archive.  At least unless the package contains all staticly linked
libraries like they do on windows.

Windows has binary compatibility from 1995 pretty much, Mac can still
run programmes from 1985.  You just can't get on GNU/Linux.  Which
makes it a lot easier on the developers of course.

Jonathan Riddell