bootloader wars

The welcome screen when we boot into a GNU/Linux system is the bootloader. Main purpose of this mechanism is to provide multiboot support. Seems quite simple and straight forward. In GNU/Linux world it’s a hot topic with controversies and discussions.

Two flavours are widely used. GRUB (GRand Unified Boot Loader) and LILO (LInux LOader). I have seen OSS historians favouring LILO over GRUB. Even many system administrators are passionate about LILO. I have seen LILO as an Integral part of  the Redhat’s earlier GNU/Linux distributions. This was until Redhat’s 6.0 release of the distribution. After that, GRUB became the default bootloader and LILO was in-fact deprecated. But still now distributions like Debian, supporting LILO.

Recently i went through an interesting webpage about the differences. The arguements are very fair.

Link: http://lwn.net/Articles/89772/

My personal favourite is GRUB, for the reason that it’s more generic in it’s name.

Mind Moodle

It’s a long time since i had a look at sourceforge projects. Moodle was my favorite in my college days.

I have tried installing moodle in gnu/linux boxes. I have also seen people earning money (as part-time job) by deploying moodle in colleges and other educational institutions. Wornder about moodle is that the installation steps are quite simple and straight forward.

Click here to see the philosophical details of the moodle design.

Moodle offers more that what i have written here. It’s worth giving a try.