Debian hacker Robert Millan has just announced the availability of a Debian-Installer Loader for win32. The program, inspired by Ubuntu’s similar project, features 64-bit CPU auto-detection, download of linux/initrd netboot images, and chainloading into Debian-Installer via grub4dos. A frontend site has been setup for advocacy purposes.
the finesse…
…still; it’s good to have even more choices.
Very nice.
i’m surprised at the number of people who don’t know how to burn an iso and boot their pc from a cd. this would make one less excuse for people not to try linux
only if they are running windows.
What about those poor MacOS users.
I guess it uses the graphical installer also. I recently reinstalled debian64 on my system and used the GUI installer for the first time.
Not bad as one might think. It went without much of any problems.
So this sounds like it could be a good idea for Window users.
Edited 2007-01-28 06:42
Site is already taking a Slashdotting. I’ll have to check back later.
Although it’s very good idea, hopefully more Linux/BSD’s use them.
I’m amazed at how many people burn the ISO to a disc, and not the proper way either.
It’s a great idea, looking forward to it some more.
Here’s a mirror site: http://www.mirrordot.org/stories/f592f4a8f9a66105d885ff7a49228380/i…
mixed views about this, i still cant see how this is going to get a Windows user to use Linux if ubuntu an or debain implement this crap into there distro, i mean whats the point of linux if you got windows look & feel to a unix/linux OS,
Yes, the headline is misleading.
No, this is not a good excuse for not reading the text and talking crap.
sure it is a good idea…. The process itself has been around for a long time – just now we have a friendly front end to it.
I rarely burn a cd anymore. I use the hd-media and install from my harddrive (not windows tho) it seems faster and I do not wear out my CD drive.
I find it funny that we need a nice front-end.exe but I guess it is alright. Not a big fan of making everything so easy that nobody has to learn anything but that may just be me….
Funny, I was thinking of a virus that would someday do this…
i don’t think a complete newb would be looking to replace their operating system, as they probably don’t know what an operating system is.
so this is really for semi-newbs (like me ;-D ). and semi-newbs would want a bit more info than “click here to install Debian Gnu/Linux”.
I mean, does it install Debian alongside Windows, or does it wipe off Windows? (after all, it is called “say goodbye to Microsoft”). What about all my data? and a dozen other queries unanswered by their site that make me hesitate to try their “product”. which kind of defeats the point of a quick-n-easy way of installing Debian.
And on a completely different point, I can’t wait for a Windows installer of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD!
does it install Debian alongside Windows, or does it wipe off Windows?
Apparently this is just a way of loading the standard “netinst” Debian-Installer without having to burn ISO images to CD-ROM. But you’ll need an existing Windows installation.
The debian-boot mailing list has some discussion on this topic:
http://lists.debian.org/debian-boot/2007/01/thrd3.html#01083
I mean, does it install Debian alongside Windows, or does it wipe off Windows?
I don’t know about this one but the “sister project” for installing Ubuntu in a similar manner does not wipe out Windows. It even does not create any new partitions. The Linux installation is placed into a single file and the bootloader boots the OS from this file.
after all, it is called “say goodbye to Microsoft”
Well if you look at the screenshots you will notice that the bootloader menu contains entries for both Windows and Debian. The intention is not to replace Windows but to provide an easy way to install Debian. So don’t worry about your data – it won’t be altered at all. Just make sure you have a few spare gigabytes on your machine.
And on a completely different point, I can’t wait for a Windows installer of Debian GNU/kFreeBSD!
Hmm, if you’re so impatient to test this system why don’t you just download and install it the regular way instead of waiting? Oh, well…
Edit: fixed typo
Edited 2007-01-30 14:36
I tried this out last night and found that Debian couldn’t find my HDD. Seems kinda odd since its just a standard IDE/ATA drive. Ubuntu installs just fine so it appears that they still have few bugs to work out, but I wish them well with this project. Getting Linux on a few more machines is a great thing.