Quote Originally Posted by Harry Kuhman
...People seem to insist on installing from the live CD, but why remains a mystery. One theory is that it's the mother duck syndrome. It's the first Linux that people see when they hatch, so they follow it like a duck follows it's mother. Perhaps if people accepted Knoppix as what it is, a fantastic Live CD distribution that has really led the way in the Linux world in automatic configuration. and when they are ready to install on a hard drive use something like Debain that is intended for hard drive install, they would be much better off.
Here's another theory...more than a theory, actual history.

When I first tried Linux I tried Mandrake but my downloaded disks froze halfway through the install. Then I tried Debian...as a absolute newbie it was WAY beyond my capability to set it up. Couldn't get sound at all, video wasn't right, nothing worked. Got RTFM'd when I asked for help.

Then I got a 'Freeduc' disk from Linux Format magazine...couldn't understand half of what was written in the magazine but the disk was worth the price. Freeduc is an odd Knoppix spinoff so I downloaded Knoppix....and discovered a Debian based system that detected and configured ALL my hardware, complete set of applications, excellent support forum where newbies don't get RTFM'd, etc etc.

Later I tried Mandrake (disks from the magazine worked) but found rpm's impossible after apt-get so wanted a Debian system. Now, after successfully trying Knoppix and unsuccessfully trying Debian, why would I choose Debian instead of Knoppix? Perhaps that makes me a duck but I prefer to think of it as choosing something that worked over something that didn't.

As for the " uproar over the quality of the hd install?", I don't think the issue is the quality of the HD install, it HD installs just fine, runs just like Knoppix when it's HD installed. It's just a few issues about customizing, upgrading and so on which only relate to a HD installed system since you can't change anything on a CD system. It's not complaints, it's just issues I don't understand...like what are these kernel patches, what do they do, can you run without them and would you want to if you could.

As for 'upgrading system' it can be done, I have done it, Cuddles has done it, both of us found that it screws up the setups so much it just doesn't seem worth it. I for one am not that concerned about 'security', I've never been hacked, I've not had any virus problems since using Linux & there is nothing valuable on my system anyway. But on the other hand, if you are 'supposed' to be able to do it, why can't you? Is it the patched kernel? The special startup scripts? What???

Maybe I'll put on an 'experimental' install just to see how badly I can break it.