fc5: install everything?

[Tim]

Les Mikesell:
>>> For example if someone wanted to build PCs with fedora pre-installed,
>>> what might the user expect to find on it?
 
Rahul Sundaram
>> OEM copies of Fedora would have whatever the OEM vendors decide to
>> provide. 

Les Mikesell:
> That's almost shocking in the context of marketing.  Is that
> what you want for a user's exposure to a fedora system?

I see two very different groups here:

1. Someone distributing pre-installed systems:  For them it's a nonsense
to argue about using the install routine as is.  They should be using a
custom install script that preselects everything that they want, the
system supports that with kickstart.  Or, they should be doing some sort
of cloning operation with a post install script that customises each
model afterwards (e.g. configures the hardware, makes each machine
individual so they don't all have the hostname, etc.).  There is no way
that I would sit through using Fedora's installer more than once every
few months.

2. End-users, installing their own systems:  There's no predicting how
they'd all want to do that.  Though I'd say that anybody who keeps on
repeatedly installing their own system more than a few times a year is
giving themselves more work than they should.  On a basis of installing
*an* OS on a reasonable regularity, the current installer is not too
much of an imposition to deal with.  Even building two or three home PCs
once a year isn't too much of a pain.

And as far as marketing is concerned, you've got the tools in your hands
to customise it as you want to.  I'd say it's far easier to do that with
Fedora than with Windows, for instance.  You don't have *onerous*
limitations on you as to what you can do.  And you get far more
functionality (all those applications, utilities, and games, as well as
the OS).

-- 
(Currently running FC4, occasionally trying FC5.)

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