Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on March 08, 2006 09:11 AM
I'm the author. Ubuntu fans, take no offense. I like Ubuntu. It might even be possible to put Ubuntu on GRML; I have not tried. I simply evaluated stock distros for my users.
In that context, Ubuntu's basic limitation is removing autodetection from hard drive installations. Most distros do exactly the same thing. They use autodetection for (a) the live CD, and (b) hard drive installation script, but (c) strip it out of the OS that is placed on the hard drive. The assumption involved is that a hard drive remains fixed to particular hardware. A mobile USB hard drive violates that assumption.
Even aside from that fundamental issue, Ubuntu's autodetection has quality problems. Now Ubuntu is a very, very high-quality distribution, just like Debian. I am not putting it down. It simply so happens that autodetection is a peculiar weak spot. Ubuntu developers state openly that their autodetection needs serious overhaul, not only for speed, but cleanness, capability, and maintainability. You can find their online remarks for yourself. Certainly with time, things will improve, but GRML is already there.
I hope Ubuntu eventually adopts a scheme like GRML's, one that not only boots fast, but also allows users to preserve auto-detection on hard drives.
Incidentally, street prices on rugged USB drives are much lower now (US$100 or so). With the right software, they offer a superb, cost-effective mobility solution that has not yet received the attention it deserves in Linux circles.
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Re:Hardware detection? Not so rare...
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on March 08, 2006 09:11 AMIn that context, Ubuntu's basic limitation is removing autodetection from hard drive installations. Most distros do exactly the same thing. They use autodetection for (a) the live CD, and (b) hard drive installation script, but (c) strip it out of the OS that is placed on the hard drive. The assumption involved is that a hard drive remains fixed to particular hardware. A mobile USB hard drive violates that assumption.
Even aside from that fundamental issue, Ubuntu's autodetection has quality problems. Now Ubuntu is a very, very high-quality distribution, just like Debian. I am not putting it down. It simply so happens that autodetection is a peculiar weak spot. Ubuntu developers state openly that their autodetection needs serious overhaul, not only for speed, but cleanness, capability, and maintainability. You can find their online remarks for yourself. Certainly with time, things will improve, but GRML is already there.
I hope Ubuntu eventually adopts a scheme like GRML's, one that not only boots fast, but also allows users to preserve auto-detection on hard drives.
Incidentally, street prices on rugged USB drives are much lower now (US$100 or so). With the right software, they offer a superb, cost-effective mobility solution that has not yet received the attention it deserves in Linux circles.
Mark
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