From: Matthew B. <mat...@co...> - 2005-07-15 13:41:27
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Peter Crowther wrote: >>It seems your concerns are addressed by the knoppix CD anyway. > > > Dumb question: How often does the Knoppix CD *actually* work first time > on a prospect's computer, without someone needing deep knowledge to > install (say) display drivers? Is it easier to use than a vanilla > Bodington war file, or harder? Especially if it prevents a prospect > using their normal machine for its normal purpose while they're testing? Knoppix has quite a large amount of clever autodetection (similar to a normal OS installation autodetection) that runs quickly at startup and selects the appropriate drivers. Problems with the Knoppix that I see the quickstart helps solve are: - Download size. Quickstart is 10MB. Knoppix is 700MB. - Dedicated PC. Knoppix requires that the PC stops being used for it's normal task. - Configuration. If Knoppix doesn't get the network detection correct then making the test install of Bodington accessible over the network could be a stumbling block. - Persistence. Knoppix doesn't have any persistence or easy way to upgrade to a full Bodington install. Also if the power goes so does your test data. - PC Only. Doesn't give Mac/Unix people a way to test. - Old. The Knoppix CD is harder to keep current with the latest Bodington. The big plus for the Knoppix is that if you have a PC you can spare for a little while it is almost guaranteed to work. The quickstart requires a little bit more work (but still allot less that a full install). I personally like the quickstart for the point of view a developer doing testing. I as a developer can get a clean Bodington install in 2 minutes without having to clear out databases or create another one or run setupservlet. -- +--Matthew Buckett-----------------------------------------+ | VLE Developer, Learning Technologies Group | | Tel: +44 (0) 1865 283660 http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ | +------------Computing Services, University of Oxford------+ |