[ILUG] Naive ADSL/WiFi questions (long (sorry!))?

[Timothy Murphy]

On Thu 21 Jun 2007, paul at clubi.ie wrote:

> On Thu, 21 Jun 2007, Ian O'Connell wrote:
> > Despite the extreme unpopularity of Tim's view, for the average
> > scenario he's quite correct, and in all my systems which came
> > pre-installed with windows that partition is re-sized down and left
> > alone.
>
> There are at least a few list members who have no use for windows and
> use some flavour of Unix. 

Sigh.
It is perfectly possible to use Unix,
and at the same time keep a Windows partition for purely pragmatic reasons.

Such as:
Updating machine BIOS, and other firmware.
Testing if problem is in software or hardware,
eg Skype works under Windows XP for me, but not under Fedora-7.
If I didn't test it under Windows, I'd have no idea where the problem lay.

> If a network service engineer comes along to install networking, or I
> speak to an ISP support desk, I'd expect to have a conversation about
> networking. I wouldn't expect them to know anything about Unix
> though.

In my experience such people almost invariably
ask you to follow precise commands which only make sense in Windows.

> So what are you suggesting exactly?
>
> That all non-windows users must keep a windows partition around?

Yes, unless you are a masochist.

> That non-windows users can not use all of their hardware?

No. What is the connection with the previous question?
Or are you saying you can't spare any of your precious hard disk?

> To get back to what Tim had written:
>
> "I would have expected your ISP to provide a Windows CD
>   for setting up ADSL.
>   Personally, I would use that if I had a Windows boot option,
>   just to set things up.
>
> So either:
>
> a) We're talking about configuring /windows/, which won't do
>     /anything/ for other OSes one might use. (In which case we're
>     arguing about whether people should be able use Linux, and the
>     like, /at all/)
>
> or
>
> b) We're talking about firmware updates for embedded routers, which
>     nearly always support the trivial FTP protocol (TFTP), which just
>     about all systems support, including all Unix systems you might
>     care about.

As I pointed out, if there _is_ a CD
there may well be a question on it which you have to answer
in order to register with your ISP, eg giving the password they gave you.

> The desire that it continue to remain possible to have a choice in
> what OS to run is not zealotry.

Surely you are the person who is trying to stop people having a choice ...




-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland