Re: How long to setup a new system?

["markw-4" <user=5@nabble.blu.org>]

 > On Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 11:19:22AM -0500, [hidden email] wrote: 
>> I just got an HP laptop from BJs. It was cheap enough, dual core 2G ram, 
>> 160g hard disk, 15" screen, $729. 
>> 
>> Anyway, I've been trying kubuntu 64 vs 32 bit. 
>> 
>> Aside from the crap that one must deal with when installing Linux on a 
>> new 
>> laptop, how long does it take you to get a Linux system "there?" 
>> 
>> For me, I have to install the development tools, dvdcss, pidgin, firefox 
>> and thunderbird (not default on kubuntu!), xine, gimp, digicam, 
>> ecryptfs, 
>> postgresql (from source), and others I can't remember. 
>> 
>> It takes me a couple hours after base install to get it the way I like 
>> it. 
>> Is anyone out there a "plug and play" or do you go through a similar 
>> ordeal? 
> 
> At work, I use a configuration management system to load 
> packages and establish config files. It takes about 2 hours 
> from bare-metal to ready-to-be-tested. 
> 
> It's a lot of work initially, but modifying it is easy and 
> the long-term time savings is wonderful. 
> 
> For my desktop systems, I do 
> 
> dpkg --get-selections > packagelist 
> 
> on a good system, copy packagelist over to the target, and 
> 
> dpkg --set-selections < packagelist 
> 
> and let apt-get take it from there. 
> 
> -dsr-