Petreley On Simplifying Software Installation for Linux

markcappel writes "RAM, bandwidth, and disk space are cheap while system administrator time is expensive. That's the basis for Nicholas Petreley's 3,250-word outline for making Linux software installation painless and cross-distro." The summary paragraph gives some hint as to why this isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

Word

[Anonymous Coward]

"That's the basis for Nicholas Petreley's 3,250-word outline for making Linux software installation painless and cross-distro."

Was it necessary to include the word count? It's hard enough to get slashdotters to read a small article and post intelligently, this cant help...

software reliability == complex install process???

[stonebeat.org]

I have noticed that installation complexity is directly propotional to the reliability of the software.

If a software is extremely complex to install, one can safely assume it is reliable :)

If a software is easy to install, it is not reliable. for e.g. MS products.

But seriously I dont think applications are complex to install, it is just that a learning curve is involved in doing anything.

emerge maybe easy.

[Anonymous Coward]

But installing gentoo is still hard.

Insert cd.
login in from the command line
net-setup ethx
cfdisk
mkrieserfs
wget ftp.gentoo-mirror.net/pub/gentoo/stage1.tar
tar xzjdocmnaf stage1.tar
mkdir /mnt/gentoo/
chroot /mnt/gentoo
scripts/bootstrap.sh
(10 hours later)
emerge ufed
edit use flags
emerge system
emerge gentoo-sources
configure kernel, having do lspci and googling obscure serial numbers to find out what modules to compile
install kernel
muck around with it's non standard bootloader
install cron and sysloggers
umount
reboot
spend two days sorting out the kernel panics
wait all week for kde to emerge.
processor dies of over work
huge nasty electricty bill arrives after running emerge for over a week 24/7

in other words, no

Petreley should do it

[Anonymous Coward]

He's got time, motivation, money and computer. Sounds like the right guy for the job!

I'm Glad It Isn't Easy

[fire-eyes]

I'm glad it isn't easy. I like a challenge, even if it takes longer, even at work.

I'm glad it isn't brainless. I'm glad it's different across distros. Then I can pick and choose what I like.

The less each distro is like any other, the happier I am.

This is why I enjoy Linux.

Re:No no no!

[Ed Avis]

More than 120 Dutch guilders? Wow! It's a good job you didn't express the amount only in those obscure euros.