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List:       opensuse
Subject:    Re: [opensuse] grub no longer being maintained? so Suse drops support
From:       "Brian K. White" <brian () aljex ! com>
Date:       2009-06-16 14:01:01
Message-ID: 4A37A59D.1070903 () aljex ! com
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Per Jessen wrote:
> Felix Miata wrote:
>
>   
>> Like learning to drive a stick, it becomes second nature before too
>> long. Grub really can be that easy, which may be why the devs decided
>> "supporting Lilo" was pointless.
>>     
>
> Felix, using the same argument, when lilo really is that easy, why
> wasn't it kept?  No, that argument doesn't hold water.
>   

Because lilo simply can not do things grub can do.
lilo is valuable primarily because options are valuable even if they are 
inferior options. Not because it works better or is simpler or has any 
advantages over grub. It's merely a different thing and it works a 
different way, a cruder, simpler, less flexible way, but simply because 
it's different there will be oddball cases here & there where the crude 
way works but the user can't figure out how to make the new way work.

The difference is more like this: grub is a typical modern furnace with 
gas or oil fuel lines, igniter, thermocouple, thermostat, a whole 
complex system that breaks down once in a while and is a mystery to 
many. Lilo is a fire in the middle of your cave.
The cave men sure never had to worry about a clogged oil burner nozzle 
or a dead 24vac transformer to operate the thermostat, or bad bearings 
in the blower motor, etc etc. All that fancy new way stuff.

Do you really want to be saying "A simple fire in the middle of the 
living room is so much better. It always just works." ?
That's essentially what anyone saying lilo is better is saying. They 
understand a fire, they don't understand a heating system, therefore a 
fire is a superior way to heat your house.

The _option_ to drop back to simply burning your furniture is valuable 
merely as an option, but how valuable really? Is it worth sucking up 
developers time that could be spent on something more useful? Not to me. 
That could be a whole persons new full-time job for life just trying to 
make another bootloader work safely in all the bizarre possible ways 
that people set up their systems. I'd rather spend a few minutes 
learning the basics of grub operation the same way I once had to learn 
the mysteries of lilo operation, and let some opensuse developer work on 
one of the zillion _actual problems_ elsewhere in the OS. Especially 
when you remember that this option is always available regardless what 
the bootloader section of yast does. If you are in a position where you 
know how to make lilo do what you need, you can always do so with a live 
cd. No one is stopping you.

-- 
bkw
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