Vista" is gonna have many people following the upgrade train again... 9996

In comp.os.linux.advocacy, TuxSux wrote on Tue, 2 Aug 2005 12:46:17 -0500

No software is available for the Linux kernel for archival purposes. The kernel can't even load or boot. (It requires init or bash to exec() the first process. Loading is done with the buttistance of LILO or GRUB from the hard drive. Ancient code can load a kernel from floppies but the kernels are getting too big for that to last much longer -- though it depends on what goes thereinto.)

By contrast, every version of Windows comes with a copy of BACKUP.EXE. This DOS-era junk heap generates backups onto floppies. I don't know if it knows DVDs and how well it handles multimegabyte files, but that doesn't matter; Windows has it. There are probably additional bits of software in Windows available, even without the CD-RW's "additional bundle-pack".

Most CD-RWs will be bundled with additional software, as well, which can be used for archival. (Mine came with Roxio.) This puts Windows well ahead of the Linux kernel, way in the lead, in fact, with processing capabilities that the Linux kernel can only dream about.

However -- that beleagured Linux kernel has help. *Lots* of help. The standard utility on most distros is either cdrecord (which is fairly primitive but who needs glitz?) or a combination of mkisofs and cdrecord, together with mount -o loop and losetup to verify the CD prior to burning. Or one can chop up a compressed tarfile into CD-sized pieces, and burn the pieces. (Later rebuttembly gets a bit tricky, sans disk space.)

With a little thought one can customize a backup solution exactly to one's liking. I'll admit I'm still thinking as to the ideal solution at this point. :-)

-- It's still legal to go .sigless.