SEUL: Comments about the loopback idea and the waste of resources

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

At first sight it seems simple.  You use initrd (see Kernel Doc),
loadlin loads the initial Ram disk and in it Linux finds losetup for
loading the initrd disk.  The problem is than you have to mount the DOS
partition so you will be unable later to put the loopback image at /.


And there are people speaking of patching the kernel.  Well who will
do it?  Any kernel hackers here?  And nobody is asking if the loopback
interface is really needed.

There is a simple solution if you want avoiding the user
partitionning: it is called UMSDOS.  Yes I know it is unefficient.
This is a VERY GOOD point: the user knows UMSDOS is only for testing,
if he likes Linux he will try the full install, if you give him
something reasonably efficient on a DOS partition then Linux will stay
for ever there looking like just another DOS program.  With a bit of
luck you will have some users buying Windows "because it is needed for
running SEUL".  :-)


There is also a general remark: there are a lot of people proposing to
redo things already existing specially in the install part.  The
loopback idea instead of UMSDOS is an example.  Another is the idea of
building a SEUL install starting from nil.  Sorry but what is wrong
with the RedHat 4.2 install?  It is a piece of cake, needs only one
floppy and it is able to connect to an FTP site and install from there
without need of a CD.  Well two things are wrong, partitionning and
the network part.  Fix the network and give him either a better fdisk
(one who does the job with little user intervention) or at least a
utility who bases on free disk space to advise the user about how to
partition.  Hack the install a bit to add UMSDOS support and you have
an instant user friendly install.  How much time for developping that:
a couple of man/weeks at most (discounting the better fdisk).  And yes
we can do it: RedHat is GPLed.


Sorry but the real weakness of present installs is not being difficult
to install (RedHat and LST are pretty easy), it is later when using
them than users have problems.


So I really don't see why use precious resources in grandiose install
projects when there are more important problems to solve in the area
of the day to day use of Linux.

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

==================== The Linux.  Use the Linux, Luke! =======================

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