[Debian-uk] Demonstrating & installing Debian

[Nick Hockings - FreeNET Africa]

On 03 Oct 2002 12:14:48 +0100  Philip Hands <phil@hands.com> wrote:

>Another alternative would be to burn some knoppix CDs (assuming that
>knoppix includes no non-free software these days --- it used to have
>staroffice, but that's now been replaced by openoffice.org). The latest
>version of knoppix is pretty cute, and is a great Debian demo. It
>doesn't get them much nearer installing Debian for real, but should be
>enough to sell them on the idea.

Hmm, I also love and loathe Knoppix. It gets people a big jump closer to 
installing free software, by giving and immediate demo,
but... why is it so dificult to actually get it installed?

Clearly it has enough info to configure the necessary drivers, maybe not 
perfectly but very functionally. Yet for fear somebody damaging their 
system, many useful things are made dificult to use (eg CUPS, and USB 
PPoE). That and there are one or two hiccups that could deter a 1st time 
user, like when it has SCSI problems at boot up (especially if there is no 
SCSI drive).

If these (possibly difficult) problems could be sorted, I'd like to see a 
live DVD with most of the Debian Intel binaries on it. That would be a 
really impressive promotion tool:) 

Does anyone on the list have specific knowledge of why these problems 
occur, and how they might be fixed?
-- 
Nick Hockings
nick@freenetafrica.org