[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 20/08/13 21:33, Simon Waters wrote: > On 20 Aug 2013, at 21:19, bad apple <mr.meowski@xxxxxxxx> wrote: >> Write a USB installer (what does "burn a disk" mean these days? Some >> kind of obsolete practice from last decade?) > Hey Matt asked me to do two the other day. They are still cheaper than USB sticks > if you have to snail mail data to random people, especially if you're still > working your way through a pack you bought nearly a decade ago so the cost is > sunk. I admittedly still burn CDs for friends' car stereos sometimes, and I've got an old spindle of DVDs that sometimes sees use for various arcane reasons. God only knows how old they are, so yeah, definitely a sunk cost. > > Clearly a bug that home user systems don't trivially NetBoot and reinstall or > rescue boot from the net without third party media. You scoff, but you're obviously not a Mac user :] That's *exactly* what Mac hipsters do these days, the laptops haven't had optical disks for years now in any model, neither does the Mac Mini "server" edition. And you know my opinion of Mac users - they're the least technically skilled of any demographic. They seem to manage it fine though! We're talking full remote boot, install and even backup recovery from networked TimeMachine capsules or even from iCloud. As much as I hate to say it, it's actually really, really well done. Back in non-Mac land, no matter how you slice it, USB media is just as easy, just as cheap and much faster in actual operation than a CD/DVD. Everyone I know has a drawer full of them just lying around unused - surely anybody can rustle up at least a 512Mb spare from the back of their sofa, which is enough for a netinst.iso? Regards -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq