Dirk T. Verbeek wrote:
> Max Power schreef:
>> A Unix / Linux / BSD fix I would like to see in the next 6 months:
>> universal support for installing to USB drives (Live CDs / DVDs) ...
>>
>> 1. The preference for installing to USB should be paramount. The risk
>> of wiping one's XP or Vista drive for most users is not worth it. Most
>> of the user interfaces practically force wiping your HD by default. It
>> should take several prompts (where you have to agree) to do this.
>> There are not enough prompts around for this dangerous operation.
>
> You have a point.
>
> But many (most) distributions already give the option to install to a
> disk and partition of choice.
>
> Your claim 'force wiping your HD by default' is in my view only
> applicable to Microsoft products.

The available options could be more gracefully presented. Dealing with the
boot loaders, in particular is an interesting problem.

> Having a multi-boot system with links to removable media has it's
> challenges, it should not crash when the media is not present.

Oh, don't get me going. I just went through conniptions with an LVM based
external USB drive, that kept showing up as "inactive" at boot time and
screwing up RHEL booting.

> A lot of problems could be avoided by fool proof installers but even
> more could be gained by newbies reading TFM.
> I know some people will see that as the typical reason that has held
> back Linux on the Desktop for so many years, yet the world does not need
> an other OS that is wide open to all kinds of abuse.