Yo, you’re giving me ideas. Maybe I can make use of my old laptop, get Windows on it (if possible), and try to do something like this. Could the average user run something through the terminal? I know PowerShell and some CMD. Or I could figure out how to GUI as well. I’d need to sketch out what such an app would do. Downloading a Linux distro would be step one. Not sure if I could make BIOS changes, though, and install. I guess with my current abilities, it’d end up being an auto ISO downloader and USB flasher at best. But I’d be down to learn and try. I’d need a basic Install Linux 101 guide, to “mimic” through a script. Could be a fun project.
Eh, now that I think about it, such a project would either need to take a lot of decisions for the user, or risk becoming too complex for giving the user options. I mean, I see partitioning, and I realise that’s something I hadn’t thought of. I assumed just an install, but what if the user wants dual boot? What distro to pick? How much space for each “boot”? Do we choose a specific DE or take the distro’s main or default? So many variables. I mean, it’s one thing to BAM! Ubuntu auto-installer .exe. Now, to allow for user choices… or not to? You either give options, which could be overwhelmimg to someone who might not even understand all that, or become simple and, in the process, heavily “opinionated”
I have no reason to believe the average person can’t manage a usb stick. They’re a common way for photos, videos, and records to be sent from one business office to another. I’ve never worked with anyone who had any particular difficulty using them, and my coworkers weren’t all especially intelligent or interested in computers.
Installing an iso from a usb drive and installing an iso after mounting it as a virtual drive seem like they involve roughly the same level of technical skill to me. Booting from cd or usb was a routine school or business activity for decades. Mounting an iso as a drive has been built into Windows for a much shorter period of time. The last time I used Windows, you needed third party software for that. I would bet on a random person off the street to be able to do the first one more reliably than the second. But, more installation options are always better.
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Yo, you’re giving me ideas. Maybe I can make use of my old laptop, get Windows on it (if possible), and try to do something like this. Could the average user run something through the terminal? I know PowerShell and some CMD. Or I could figure out how to GUI as well. I’d need to sketch out what such an app would do. Downloading a Linux distro would be step one. Not sure if I could make BIOS changes, though, and install. I guess with my current abilities, it’d end up being an auto ISO downloader and USB flasher at best. But I’d be down to learn and try. I’d need a basic Install Linux 101 guide, to “mimic” through a script. Could be a fun project.
deleted by creator
Eh, now that I think about it, such a project would either need to take a lot of decisions for the user, or risk becoming too complex for giving the user options. I mean, I see partitioning, and I realise that’s something I hadn’t thought of. I assumed just an install, but what if the user wants dual boot? What distro to pick? How much space for each “boot”? Do we choose a specific DE or take the distro’s main or default? So many variables. I mean, it’s one thing to BAM! Ubuntu auto-installer .exe. Now, to allow for user choices… or not to? You either give options, which could be overwhelmimg to someone who might not even understand all that, or become simple and, in the process, heavily “opinionated”
deleted by creator
I have no reason to believe the average person can’t manage a usb stick. They’re a common way for photos, videos, and records to be sent from one business office to another. I’ve never worked with anyone who had any particular difficulty using them, and my coworkers weren’t all especially intelligent or interested in computers.
deleted by creator
Installing an iso from a usb drive and installing an iso after mounting it as a virtual drive seem like they involve roughly the same level of technical skill to me. Booting from cd or usb was a routine school or business activity for decades. Mounting an iso as a drive has been built into Windows for a much shorter period of time. The last time I used Windows, you needed third party software for that. I would bet on a random person off the street to be able to do the first one more reliably than the second. But, more installation options are always better.
deleted by creator