You do not need to install it as it will run from a boot disk, or in my case a boot CD. At 15:40 15/04/2004, you wrote:
I would think, providing something like Partition Magic is available ( which I have and no doubt others ) to do the job it could be offered as an option for those who are not competent with doing it themselves or installing new hardware.
Partition Magic is commercial software. From a quick look over the website, I can't see a trial version handy, nor would I expect a trial version to be fully featured. I might be wrong here, of course, as I've only spent a few minutes looking into this. [1]
I know PM is a great product, I've used it in the past. However, we would almost certainly be violating licensing on the product if we were to install it on everyones computer to resize their partitions prior to installing Linux. Same goes for the use of Ghost to back up their harddisk. [2]
We would be doing very badly indeed if we were tapped on the shoulder by the BSA for pirating commercial software to aid us is installing Linux on people's computers. Oh, the irony.
If people want to get Partition Magic, then they can buy it themselves. Many PC's come with an OEM of Ghost, which they can use themselves if they like. End of the day, it's their responsibility, not ours. And a small harddisk is probably the cheapest option here.
I was thinking of making it as easy as possible for the person to give Linux a go...
Granted, however we don't want to break any laws in the process. That could end up making it very hard for the person, and for the LUG in general.
[1] & [2]. There are OSS equivalents of these two products, however I'm not sure how featurefull they are (ie, if they cover resizing NTFS5 partitions, etc). _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug