Is Linux or Windows Easier To Install?

Mark Cappel writes: "Joe Barr, a LinuxWorld.com columnist, compares Linux and Windows installations. He expected Windows to be faster and easier since Microsoft has been at it for 21 years. (DOS 1.0 was released 21 years ago today.) It turns out Red Hat is quicker and less manually intensive."

Linuxworld huh?

[blackula]

Sounds like a source for unbiased reporting in all facets of the computing world.

Is Linux or Windows Easier To Install?

[Wrexen]

The answer, of course, is yes

...and in other news

[Anonymous Coward]

Rush Limbaugh has released an objective account of the Clinton presidency.

Nobody can eat just one.

[ktakki]

Windows is a fairly quick install, which makes those yearly re-installs a breeze!

And I see that MS-DOS 1.0 is 21 years old. Let's take DOS out to a bar and get it drunk, watch it stagger home and puke in the bushes.

k.

Re:Technically...

[0101000001001010]

Wouldn't it be great, if the Red Hat ISOs were put through a hash generating a 128bit number. Then you could compare your downloaded ISOs with that number to see, if they are different.

Then, after you have burned your CDs, you could let your burning software check for physical errors whilst running the hash once more. That should eliminate almost all errors.

The only problem that could arise is, if the a corrupt image and a correct one produced the same number. We should avoid this by using a well known hash like MD5.

All in all my idea sounds so good, I should apply for a software patent right now. I shall christen this technology... checksums!

Re:Technically...

[MsGeek]

OK, here's my experience. Same computer, four hard drives in cartridges.

1.) Red Hat 7.3 "Valhalla". 30-40Min. install. All hardware detected.
2.) Lycoris Build 44. 15-minute install. All hardware detected.
3.) Windows 98SE. A miserable hour of rebooting, futzing with drivers, ultimately disappointment as I was never able to get the OS to recognize that, yes, the IDE lines could do UDMA mode.
4.) Windows 2000. Abortion in the middle of the install as the W2K hardware probing routine tickles a known bug in the Xpert 2000 AGP video card and locks everything up tight as a drum. Pondering the irony of the name of the video card as I also ponder its replacement.

Final score: Linux 2, Windows 0. And I'm a fsckn MCSE, I'm supposed to know how to fix this crap!

The long version of this article will show up in Low End PC (http://www.lowendpc.com/) when it finally gets finished moving to a new server.