www.sarducd.it

[weak]

Like Xboot, it's fiddly, and time consuming to get anything the author hasn't tested integrated into a boot cd/dvd/usb

Like most people I expect, I have many iso's that aren''t supported, but probably would work with grub or some other emulation - but it's so hard to integrate and save them for future newer sardu.iso builds, that I gave up.

The extra iso's should be saveable in an ini file, and should be displayed on screen with a simple tick box, to enable/disable them in the next test disc build

It may have started off as a freeware multibooter, but there's so much out there, that the author could let the user community test it, and produce an working extras.ini with the correct settings, then all the user has to do is point it at a user iso directory.

the naming and pickup method of av isos's etc, should be editable by the user too.

IE a table of Extra 1, and then a check box of which emulation, or a winpe emulation

Great piece of software, but could be so much better with a few minor tweaks to the interface, and menu

[davidecosta]

When it wal launched xBoot (stopped more than a year), the developer described it as like SARDU.
SARDU was the first (chronologically) multiboot builder (automatically).

What is missing in SARDU is a guide to explain what everything does


SARDU makes what you ask.

You can enable or disable extra -->Menu file (i will move this voice in the extra section)

You can manage one file named extra.cfg (YOUR_ISO_FOLDER\extra.cfg) and SARDU will add this folder with the menu (if enabled).

If i haven't cooperation i can't migliorare. In folder extra user can load the file .cfg (syslinux) or .lst (grub4dos) but, at this moment, no one release his tests.
The easiest thing is to ask and complain, the hardest thing is to collaborate.. If you or another user tell me one generic entry that works fine with a list os software, i can add it in a few minutes

[BCITMike]

I agree that newer instructions need to be updated to indicate how to do this. Its currently out of date and fractured. But even so, we do not think the work flow is easy to work with (suggestion, wizard style so that the user is prompted for everything Sardu expects). With xboot, drag the iso onto the app, select "Grub4Dos ISO Image Emulation", write to USB, and that is pretty much IT. The ISO is stored on the USB as an ISO, making the copying and updating of the disk so much easier when a new version comes out (replace iso with same name!). I still don't know how to get Paragon boot disk to work with Sardu, but with Xboot, I didn't have to and it was done in minutes. Now, xboot already supported Paragon, so I also added Acronis which isn't, and again, done in minutes by using Grub4dos emulation! Nothing special needed about ramdisk and vmlinux, etc.

Please add "Grub4Dos ISO Image Emulation" so that it becomes much easier to add to a Sardu disk. Use a new tab dedicated to custom included ISO's would be a way to see which are included, and can be enabled and disabled. If you think people want to deal with the specific settings and also be in the dark about what will be on the boot disk (for extra stuff), you are very wrong. It is just confusing and hard to manage. At more than 40 minutes to write to the USB, missing some extra settings and having to redo multiple times, also without success, was really, really, frustrating. I accomplished the same with xboot in minutes (adding files and writing to USB flash because you get better write speeds when writing large ISO and not thousands of small files).

You are asking for collaboration. Implement grub4dos emulation like many of the other apps do and you will make big strides to delivering what people are wanting. Please share what you are willing to do, because my impression from you over the last year is, "I know its difficult to use, its an advanced feature, you're on your own and leave it for the advanced people. Its not supported". There is nothing that gives me the impression you want to improve the extra ISO experience to be easier to use. Or you don't have the vision to implement this in friendly and useful way (comparing to xboot solution).

Perhaps I am being too simplistic. I do not know the technical limitations of using grub4dos ISO Image Emulation, I just see it working in other apps and want that capability, too.

[davidecosta]

My english is very bad and we don't understand.

My standpoint is very very simple:

SARDU integer and support ufficially ONLY freeware freely downloadable and the Installers of Windows.

Why of this choice? My job isn't in computer science. I'm tired of technicians leechers that know only ask, ask and ASK, violate the license of SARDU (free only for personal use), earn lots of money using SARDU without spent one cent. When a tecnicians use SARDU for install WIndows or repair one PC do it for free? I can spend my money and my time for them? I should change frequently my hardware for testing, I should take the money from my job to do something to earn them? I'm stupid but not crazy. I have a daughter, my thought is to feed her and don't earn technicians.

SARDU isn't xBoot. I don't know how works xBoot. I know only how works SARDU. I know only that xBoot use the map of the ISO (slow) and SARDU extract all file. I know only that the project xBoot is dead for over a year...

Now if you know a way to run these softwares, because instead of always complaining, you do not communicate? The reponse is very very simple: egoism.

SARDU is born as a challenge to myself.
In 2008 there was not a software that automatically build an ISO or a USB multiboot.
SARDU was the first.
You could not get more XP installer
SARDU...the first.
You could not get more Windows PE
SARDU...the first
You could not get more Windows Installers
SARDU...the first

Thw downloader of SARDU was created line by line from me, the burning software idem, if you think that scare me add two lines of code ...

[BCITMike]

Davide,

Then it is not clear what your objectives are and who your intended audience is. If you wanted to make money on this project, you should have made it shareware. Do you think the everyday home user is going to make a big USB key for diagnostic purposes? How often do you think their ONE PC is going to need 15 different things? How do you make the disc and install linux/windows and other things from the typical ONE PC a home user would have? No, only the "technician" types would have more than one PC. Either the ones who work in IT as a job, or the ones who's family members dump their computers on to fix and repair.

If you want to make a freeware only disk, then don't add the extra option and don't add Windows! Your logic breaks down when you allow commercial Windows installers. It's like you are going half way and not providing a full solution with poor reasoning.

Do you really think people "earn lots of money using SARDU"? At best it might save a person on buying extra USB keys or CD's, but by no means is this a money maker. I highly doubt anyone is selling a Sardu bootdisk (and if they are, you can easily add a line to the boot menu "If you paid for this, you have been ripped off. www.sarducd.it" This is what other freeware does.). At best, you can say it saves time, but does it really? I can easily say I spent more time on making (failed) Sardu bootdisks than the time it saved. Do you think technicians are invoicing their clients for a Sardu bootdisk? No.. Why do you encourage it? "This makes SARDU infinitely complete and customizable and best solution for technicians or for those who have to install Windows from USB or repair a PC, saving precious time."

Home users are not trying to spend money, we are always trying to SAVE money. I know I wouldn't use Sardu if I had to pay, and even without paying, I have had to find other solutions for what I want (I'm not everyone, though). If you want users to pay, then you should change your licence and make it payware for commercial use (though commercial people will just buy proven solutions with support from people like MagicISO or EZB Systems). At best, its the convenience of a single USB key to carry in your pocket.

Do you think technicians who know what they are doing are using Sardu to install Windows on lots of machines? Sardu doesn't support the Autounattend.xml install, so why would a technician use your software to make them have to sit and press keys during the install? Do you think technicians are using stock Windows installation and then have to do 3 hours of windows updates and customizations? HAHA, no. They regularly make slipstreamed discs with all the updates.

If a technician repairs a computer, you didn't write the repair software. You didn't analyze what needed to be done to repair it. You didn't do the physical actions to do the repair. All you did was facilitate an easier bootdisk! You are contributing about less than 5% of the solution! If I'm a technician working at the shop, I'm repairing multiple things at a time. Would I need a multiboot disk? No, I would want multiple copies so I can repair multiple machines at once.

Does it matter if xboot is no longer supported if it can do what I need with it? When the next Acronis, Paragon, firmware upgrade tool is released, I am minutes away from an updated disk.

Again, I think you need to review what your objections are for SarduCD. You say you started it in the first place as a challenge to yourself, but you are definitely annoyed you are not making any money and who you think is benefiting from the program is making money. My friends and I come up with awesome ideas all the time, but we ask ourselves, "how much is that worth to someone?" and "are they willing to pay it?". A lot of the times the answer is no. There are TONS of free services out there that will die off because they don't have a business model. You have to be realistic with the benefit you are providing. For someone to donate like $20+ dollars, they need to see significant time savings or benefits (ie, single source downloader, but I would often download them directly for faster and simultaneous speed, or single USB key instead of a few). When some of us have provided the feedback of the features we would want to see, you are balking at it. There is a VPN service called Logmein Hamachi. There is real value to having a hosted VPN for up to 32 clients for $20 a YEAR, and people who have used the service for years would rather lose features and move to a free service than cover the very reasonable $20/year. There are people who can see the value and are willing to pay for it, and there are a lot more who just want the benefit for free. If it cost 1 cent, it is no longer an option to them.

Most people who start freeware projects do so because it crosses with their every day job or hobby and they are doing it for the benefit of themselves or others. If I was in your shoes, I would either stop the project and release the code as open source so others can improve on it, or turn it into a money making project and stop bitching about the misuse of your product. Some developers can afford freeware projects through the advertising on their website, or ad supported installers (like browser toolbars).

In summary, mine and weak's opinion is that the software needs further improvements for the extra stuff to be better understood and used. Your response is not that it needs improvement, but user needs more education. We are fundamentally disagreeing with that, saying its not easy to use and its confusing.

"If you or another user tell me one generic entry that works fine with a list os software, i can add it in a few minutes". We are saying that 'grub4dos ISO image emulation' is how other ISO's can be used in other software. We obviously didn't write the other software, so we cannot provide the entry you are asking for. This is the catch22. We don't KNOW OR KNOW HOW TO GET THE ENTRY, THE OTHER SOFTWARE DOESN'T REQUIRE IT AND WORKS, THAT IS THE DESIRED SOLUTION.

[davidecosta]

Read the forum: Only requests. If you want I'll send you my email....Only requests.

Make money? Where do I say this? I said something different: I don't spent my money for develope a software or change hardware for make money the technicians. You instead of me what would you do?

You can download and use Windows until the expiration of the license test. Windows isn't freeware but all people use windows and have one cd of windows.
SARDU build Windows Server? NO

Can you tell me why you spent your time (the time is money) for one software that don't works fine? Use xBoot , is your best solution.
we are all happy. You have your solution and do not waste time with my stupid software

[fisho]

Davide I registered just to try to help you...
sorry for the other users I'll write in Italian.
Ho un amico in Sardegna e ti capisco. poco lavoro etc etc.
Penso che non sia utile arrabbiarsi con i tecnici ma semplicemente fare una versione
con features extra e venderla.
e usare google translator per capire gli utenti stranieri e scrivere in inglese più corretto...
ciao e buona fortuna...
Gabriele

[fisho]

oppure fare a pagamento modifiche o estensioni per gli utenti che te lo chiedono creando versioni personalizzate.

[fisho]

Sorry for the italian digression...
It seems that Davide is not happy about people asking more and more and no donations for his work.
He has a family and as you all know the economic scenario is getting worse everyday...
Please support him.

[ibach]

Sorry for my weakness not to keep my mouth shut... I've stumbled at this threat waiting sardu to finish building my disk.
Great job Davide! After all this is the simplest software to use of them all, doing exactly what I need.
I'd love to support it in any way, but verbally is the only one I can do right now...