Blogging Ottinger (tim)How Long Should It Take To Set Up A Development Machine?
Assuming you can do installs over the net from public sources (no private wizardry) and can use CDs/DVDs, and assuming that you have a new PC with no operating system at all on it, how long should it take you to set up a working machine with developers tools and office software? Oh, and you should have all the latest versions and patches.
On a Debian Linux box, using the netinst CDs, I would expect that I could have the whole thing up and running in less than an hour with compilers, IDEs, graphics editors, web editors, C++, Java and Eclipse, Python and one or two IDEs, C# with MonoDevelop, OpenOffice, Firefox browser, Thunderbird email, an IM client for four IM services, CD burning software, media players, and documentation for all of that. And, of course, I would have the latest versions and patches supported by my choice of OS “vendor”.
I talked to some people, and opinions vary. I am interested in “reasonable expectation” from people who’ve done this on various Windows operating systems, Mac OS/X, and various Linux systems. I suspect that I’m unfairly spoiled by Ubuntu/Debian/etc.
