[ale] More AJC Stuff

[R I Feigenblatt]

>PR is important but ease of installation is, I think, more important.

>never got around to that. Do we have a simple to install mini-linux
>available now with perhaps a one page set of instructions? If so
>Bill

Several Linux vendors sell CD-ROMs with "live file systems", i.e.
you can run Linux right off the CD-ROM without doing ANY installation.
(Ok, you need a floppy to boot in most cases, but I think the new (3.03)
RedHat has a DOS utility on the CD to launch Linux from the CD alone.)
Yes, program loading is sloooooowwww, and performance eventually chokes
on small RAM machines for want of swap space. But no one has to mess with
long, complicated installation procedures, or changes to their hard drive,
reducing the anxiety factor.

There STILL are machines out there without a CD drive (even though they go
for as little as $50), but people who use them are not too into computers
in the first place. It's the "multimedia" upgrade (CD + audio card) that
turned the PC from a glorified typewriter into an entertainment center for
the masses in the 92-95 time frame, which is why it is sitting in about a
third of the homes in America today. By the way, this makes it a pity that one
has to rebuild the kernel (at least on RedHat) to get any sound card support.

Ron Feigenblatt

P.S. You might also want to get the Yggdrasil installation video which
hopefully will be shown at the expo on the VCR+TV machine that should be
there. It demos the installation of SEVERAL standard Linuxes.

P.P.S. It is typically services and support and even hardware, not the
purchase price
of the OS and other software, that dominates the cost of operating a PC for
business.