__/ [Peptide One] on Tuesday 13 September 2005 06:08 \__
> Tattoo Vampire wrote the following on 9/12/2005 11:04 PM:
>> PCLinuxOS... grabbed some stuff from a repository I shouldn't have and
>> did some serious damage.
>>
>> Now, to spend hours poring through log files to see what went wrong? Nah.
>>
>> Pop the CD in the drive, reboot, select new install and preserve /home.
>> Read magazine article while system installs, about 17 minutes total.
>>
>> Reboot, spend 20 minutes or so reinstalling a few additional apps that
>> weren't part of the default installation, and then get back to work.
>>
>> From hosed system to functioning system in well under an hour with one
>> reboot to launch the new installation, and all original user settings
>> intact.
>>
>> Try that with YOUR operating system, Wintrolls.
>
> That is pretty cool. Sounds like I'll have to give PCLinuxOS a go :-)
I am fairly sure you can preserve /home when upgrading or re-installing SuSE
as well. It is beautiful how settings and programs can get isolated so that
(re-)installations are rather irrelevant to the actual user/s. Windows does
that to some extent too, but I suspect there are many exceptions and
pitfalls.
In Linux there are also a few exceptions if you choose to change some
settings as root or mount some additional devices such as network drives.
Either way, I agree. Windows is one heck of a project to upgrade, not to
mention the poor pool of pre-installed software. I know people who can
afford to pay IT staff who in turn spend days restoring and migrating for
the client. Needless to say, that is extremely costly and prone to
breakage, e.g. incompatibilities, missing software licences, etc.
Roy
--
Roy S. Schestowitz | "Computers are useless. They only solve problems"
http://Schestowitz.com | SuSE Linux | PGP-Key: 74572E8E
6:25am up 18 days 23:59, 3 users, load average: 0.56, 1.00, 0.93
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