Of partinioning and newbies...

[synapse13]

Just tried to install Vector Linux Soho 5.1 . You know you are in touble when you
run into a cryptic , antiquated installer highlighted by the AWFUL cfdisk program.
Of course it didn't install. These people need to take a look at the Mepis and
PCLinuxOS installers, maybe they can learn something.Out of the 100 distros
listed on that right hand column at Distrowatch,there are probably 15 worth
your time.

[fingal]

Just tried to install Vector Linux Soho 5.1 . You know you are in touble when you
run into a cryptic , antiquated installer highlighted by the AWFUL cfdisk program.
Of course it didn't install. These people need to take a look at the Mepis and
PCLinuxOS installers, maybe they can learn something.Out of the 100 distros
listed on that right hand column at Distrowatch,there are probably 15 worth
your time.

I know what you mean about cryptic installers. cfdisk isn't awful btw: you just haven't learned how to use it yet. It seems hard to use at first, but after a while it becomes quite easy. What makes it complicated is that if a distro installs using a script with a graphical front-end, you perceive cfdisk as part of that, and end up getting frustrated. That isn't your fault IMHO.

I know - I've been there, bought the t-shirt etc. Having said that, I think a good installer is worth its weight in kernels. Unfortunately, they seem to be very low down on the list of 'things I want to code' for Linux hackers.

[Weedman]

dont bag cfdisk, it is quit good imho

i used to hate fdisk until i learnt how to use it, now i love it!

-weed

[onlinebacon]

Fdisk definitely seems to be the best partitioner known to man!

[fingal]

I was thinking (yeah I know ... I shouldn't ) Slackware isn't supposed to be good for newbies, but its installer is actually not too bad. Maybe it is newbie friendly after all??

[synapse13]

QTPARTED is the best partitioning program by far. One of the reasons i
have Mepis.
It's amazing isn't it how the really good distros DO NOT HAVE TO
ASK ALL KINDS OF HARDWARE QUESTIONS that the lousy ones do. As
far as i am concerned if the distro doesn't have a graphic installer that
is a tip off that you are in for a rough time and a newbie will be dead
in the water.
But of course some geeks making distros could CARE LESS.

[bryansmith]

As far as i am concerned if the distro doesn't have a graphic installer that is a tip off that you are in for a rough time and a newbie will be dead in the water.

What about Ubuntu? It's pretty newbie friendly and it's installer is definetly not graphical (depends if you consider curses graphical ).

Bryan

[onlinebacon]

QTPARTED is the best partitioning program by far. One of the reasons i
have Mepis.
It's amazing isn't it how the really good distros DO NOT HAVE TO
ASK ALL KINDS OF HARDWARE QUESTIONS that the lousy ones do. As
far as i am concerned if the distro doesn't have a graphic installer that
is a tip off that you are in for a rough time and a newbie will be dead
in the water.
But of course some geeks making distros could CARE LESS.

synapse13, don't you realise that we were all newbies once? And those 'geeks making distros' put a lot of effort into what they do?

Distros that do ask hard questions, are usually more aimed towards people who KNOW what they are doing

[budman7]

Vectorlinux is aimed at getting setup on older hardware.
Having a graphical installer wastes resources that are better spent elsewhere.

If Vector had a graphical installer, it might not get onto some of the older machines.

[rob.rice]

it's not that hard to partion a drive for vector all you need is 2 partions one for the system and one for swap space
as distros go vector is the simplest I have ever seen
it just unrolls one tar file run lilo and the system is
ready to boot to the command line then you configure it to the machine it is running on set the default run levle to 4
you don't have to figure what you have to install what to leave out
it's a prety good base system with X that you can coustomiz in what ever way you want