Newbie questions about booting Slackware

[Debee Norling]

Alex writes:

>You should install lilo. I'm not sure why it makes it seem like lilo
>is such a dangerous thing to install...I guess it's because eomeone
>who's dual-booting can screw up their system.

They should really say then that dual-booting is dangerous. The install (and
the current docs which I've also read for Slackware) imply you should stay
away from lilo and that magically, your system will boot when you're
finished.

If I was mislead, so will be others, so it's now in the Speakup archive --
install Lilo and ignore the warnings.

It's silly nowadays anyway to dual-boot; machines are so cheap that even a
person on fixed income can afford them. I used to be very poor and now, I
work  at a community college with disabled students, so I know what it means
to be on fixed income.

Our local surplus stores have 350MHZ pentiums with 3GB hard disks for
between 20 and 60 dollars without operating system, depending on the other
options like CD writer and USB. For $100, you can get a surplus (probably
refurbished) Pentium II with about 96MB of ram, a 4GB hard drive, a legal
Windows operating system and a slow CD writer. When you visit on Saturdays,
the 486 computers are stacked in dusty racks outside with signs that say
"make an offer".

Granted, I live in Silicon Valley, but a little web shopping can get you the
same thing. In fact, my two favorite surplus stores, Halted Specialties and
Weird Stuff Warehouse, both sell on the internet as well, and their labeling
about whether stuff has been tested is honest. Just buy some old junk
machine for $100 and skip the messy dual-boot!


--Debee