Suggestion - how I would do it

[zedzed]

At present the teams are following the Microsoft model where we try to get the OS working on as many platforms as possible.

 

Let's try to follow the Apple model where we do really well on a few platforms.

 

I have gone from version to version and each time I spend days and days trying to get the system to work. I am not a super geek so it takes me a long time to figure things out.

 

What I would recommend is the following.

1. We develop 3 or 5 hardware platforms that have great compatibility.

2. The teams then develop an installer which identifies which platform you have

3. Installs and you get the system working in one shot.

 

I would rather spend money to buy the right hardware rather than spending days and lots of frustration installing with the present model.

 

Thoughts?

[mtotho]

are you considering making a mac OSX86 series of computers? lol

 

really.. it can be alot easier than that. Just find a good mobo and everything else should be pretty compatible.

 

Also.. The Asus P5W DH board does have sound driver options on the Kalyway install disk.. it actually says "ALC882 (P5W DH)" And there is options for Nvidia video cards.

 

If this is not what you meant, please elaborate.

 

It is a cool idea though.. the developers just add sound/lan/kernel/video options for virtually all known configurations. They wouldnt need to do anything too motherboard specific.. if you knew you had alc882 you could select that one.. if you knew you have an nforce 680i board.. you could select the labeled kernel "Nforce 680i Kernel" or something like that. Or Like realtek XXXX series lan select this one.. That would be nice.. there is enough info on this site to get 90 percent of the configurations working.. just not compiled nicely. It would be alot of work. Maybe you can help Kalyway

[zedzed]

There is no way I could help anyone with techie stuff.

I might be considered by my friends a "super-user" but I am not a techie.

 

All I know is that over the last year I have been playing and I even bought stuff that supposedly had high compatibility but I still had nightmares and frustration getting the installs to work.

 

Here is what I would do - develop a "Spec List" of five different systems.

(Yes I guess you could consider this a Osx86 series of computers)

 

Sys1 = mobo1 + cpu series1 + videocard1

Sys2 = mobo2 + cpu series2 + videocard2

etc

 

Each system would be either price range or function related (like for video editing)

 

I would go out and buy the specific hardware and then when I did the install I would click on Sys1 and the install does everyone and the system would boot properly the first time. I would prefer to go with specific motherboards rather than choosing the sub-components during install.

 

One thing that the super-geeks (I use that as a compliment) forget is that there are many of us "mini-geeks" that have enough capability to want to try but not enough expertise to make it happen easily.

 

I hate Windows but the nice thing is that I can install it in half an hour while having a beer or two.

 

Or - we need better documentation with more detail so that us mini-geeks can get things done.

For example, some sort of decision tree on whether I should try EFI or not.

I still have no clue on that

 

mtotho - you state "really.. it can be alot easier than that. Just find a good mobo and everything else should be pretty compatible."

but for example - I have the d945gntlkr which is supposed to be very compatible - but it does not work or me

[zedzed]

I look through the hardware section and see all sorts of questions about hardware compatibility.

 

I really think that having as an example - five 'approved systems' which have optimized installations for would be a really good thing for people that want to build a hacintosh