Re: [Fsfe-uk] An ignorant question?

[Martin WHEELER]

On Tue, 10 Jun 2003, Neil Darlow wrote:

> Very probably but contrast the ability for Joe Public to buy a copy of e.g.
> Sage or QuickBooks, install it and be up and running within half an hour with
> the need to install apache, MySQL and SQL Ledger and configure them before
> being able to start working.
>
> Let's not forget these are people who wouldn't have a clue how to install a
> RPM and yet we're advocating this as a solution. It's fine for those running
> support companies because it earns them money but, let's be sensible here,
> installing Windows software is pretty much a no-brainer these days. The same
> can't be said of comparable free software.

Hmmm.

Have you installed, say, XP recently?
(Tears; grief; frustration and multiple re-boots?)

Then made a direct comparison with installing Knoppix to hard-disk?
(boot from CD; Ctl-Alt-Fn to a command-line tty, and run
/usr/local/bin/knx-hdinstall).

In half-an-hour you've got everything you want.  Installed.
Hell, it even gives you a copy of MagicPoint with embedded animations
(xclock runs in one of the demo presentations out the box as I
remember), and the ability to feed inline command-line results back into
the presentation frame.

You want your own version with SQL Ledger included?
Amend the contents of the CD to suit, and re-distribute, as the
educational and medical versions have already done.
Tailor it to fit the exact degree of point-and-drool limitation of your
intended user audience, and there you are.

The no-brainer activity here is very definitely installing Knoppix.
XP is a nightmare (and can go blow, for my money).

Horses for courses.
-- 
Martin Wheeler   -   StarTEXT / AVALONIX - Glastonbury - BA6 9PH - England
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