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1b1ed1a
(Get the code!)
Yeah, https:/
My argument is that a successful installer should "Just Work" with the absolute minimal resources (physical and skills) on the installation side. In this day and age I'd say the minimum is a) a decent CD install (Live or otherwise) or b) a decent over-the-wire install with *nothing* but a reasonable Internet connection (OK and in this case a working floppy drive). If you don't have a working CD player or decent Internet connection, then you've got bigger problems than trying to install Ubuntu.
Both https:/
1) Require extra infrastructure that may not be present (a second PC).
2) Require some picky and specific configuration tweaks on that second PC, that may not be a) possible given the installer's skill, interest or time, or b) desirable for the given environment [2].
3) Because of #1 and #2, the ability to do an install any time, any place, is more limited than it should be, granted in a small number of cases (bused CD only).
4) They are arguably less secure, since you're setting up tftp which is questionable security-wise, and you're creating an environment that makes it very simple to overwrite existing systems by accident, very easily. BAD IDEAS. Sure, it's fine *if* you remember to clean up after yourself...
I think that this:
0) Using only 1 machine:
1) Download three (possibly four) floppy images
2) "Burn" the floppies using readily available software for Linux or Windows (including GUI varieties)
3) Reboot from floppy one, inserting the others as prompted
4) Do the install
Is a lot less scary to a newbie than this:
0) Using at least two machines:
1) Install a particular (arguably non-standard) DHCP server
2) Configured it a given way (copy and paste from good directions; on the command line)
3) Install a tftp server
4) Copy install files into place
5) Extract files and change permissions as needed (command line)
6) Enable and configure the tftp server (copy and paste from good directions; on the command line)
7) Maybe turn off a firewall or create rules as necessary for any/all of the above to maybe work
8) Try to boot the target, using PXE (which, if it fails, probably does so pretty quietly and inexplicably)
9) Else go download some floppies, burn 'em, hope they work with your NIC (which you have to already know about)
10) If everything else worked right the first time <g>, start the install now
Looking at that, I can see why some people think Linux is hard. Not what Ubuntu is shooting for, I think.
I am capable of doing this a couple of different ways, that's not the problem. My argument is that for very little work a newbie who wants to try out Ubuntu on a marginal machine could have a MUCH nicer time of it. Anyone ever try to install Windows this way? (OK, OK, newer than Win95 anyway? :-) Won’t work; but "Linux Can Do It!
Maybe I'm nuts and the only person to think this, in which case I'll shut up and go away. It'll be interesting to see if anyone else finds and comments on this...
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Notes
[1] Aside for the method itself, which I covered above, it has a broken links to https:/
[2] I already have DHCP and I like how it's set up. I'm not about to munge my config to do something that I shouldn't need it for anyway. Likewise, tftp isn't allowed on my network. And even if I did set that stuff up in an isolated environment, it only works here, not if I happen to be at someone else's house.