I need a Debian VM for the tech edits on #n4sa2e.

[mwl@io.mwl.io]

I need a Debian VM for the tech edits on #n4sa2e. Switched to the Mac, so I need to set up a new one.

Reminded once again that you can 95% set up a working Linux box by hitting ENTER in the installer. The only things you type are your username, passwords, and one TAB to say "yes, fry my disk." The advanced options are there, but you must look for them.

My #freebsd people: I love y'all, but THIS is an installer that welcomes new users.

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@mwl and people in the Linux world complain that the Debian installer is too hard to use compared to that of other distros :D

(if I had infinite time now I'd try to install freebsd on a VM to see the difference)

[jornane@mastodon.bsd.cafe]

@mwl My experience with the Debian installer is giving the partition table a manicure because there is no “this is an EFI system” button, or a “do the right thing but use XFS instead of Ext4”.

FreeBSD lets me pick and choose between ZFS and UFS, BIOS and EFI boot, or both.

[mwl@io.mwl.io]

@jornane The FreeBSD installer is unquestionably more powerful.

But it needs a button at the front: "I am a noob who wants to play with this new thing, please set me up."

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@mwl @jornane is it (significantly) more powerful? the debian installer does have an advanced mode that allows you to do more things

(not that I remember what those things are, as I very rarely need to use it)

[valhalla@social.gl-como.it]

@mwl @jornane (most of my needs for fancy stuff tended to be covered by “building uboot and putting it on an SD card with a debootstrapped system on it”, and now the debian installer also supports that, for the boards I use :) )