Re: [gentoo-dev] borked release media

["Walter Dnes" <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>]

On Fri, Dec 07, 2012 at 08:55:04PM -0800, "Pawe?? Hajdan, Jr." wrote

> The serious problem here is that we need *new* users. A non-working
> install CD is a really bad thing here, don't you think? ;-)

  While we're at it, can we please also make a USB-key "install ISO"?
I'm not asking merely because "other distros do it".  I'm asking because
the situation has changed in the past half-dozen years.  Back in 2005 or
2006, almost all machines had a CD and/or DVD, and many older PC BIOSes
did not allow for booting from a USB key.  Fast-forward to 2012 (and
soon 2013) and...
* just about every PC is capable of booting from USB
* quite a few netbooks/notebooks do not have a CD or DVD drive.  E.g. I
  had to boot from a Knoppix USB key as my working environment to do the
  initial portion of the Gentoo install on my netbook.

  Yes, I'm aware of http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/liveusb.xml, but even I
have occasionally fouled up those intructions.  It doesn't exactly
encourage new Gentoo users to have to go through that tap-dance.  Arch
linux https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/USB_Installation_Media
manages to have a dual-bootable (CD / USB-key) image as a standard
feature.  In addition to installation, it would make the base of a good
system rescue utility.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications