"Windows 7 Setup is graphical like those on most Linux
distributions (which they've had for many years) but the
functionality isn't much better than the XP installer. The only
really useful addition is the ability to use USB storage devices to
load drivers instead of requiring a floppy drive. Like in XP it is
single-task based so that every partition edit is immediately
applied while most Linux installers queue up a series of operations
and then perform them in a batch. The installation and updates took
a long time with several reboots (and of course entering the 25
digit key). I don't remember the details about the one Vista
installation and update process was like but both are faster to
install than XP with it's service pack and several updates that
often have to be performed sequentially. The progress messages from
the setup screen did seem to indicate some updates were installed
but after logging in Windows Update installed some more. The
earlier messages may have been referring to updates on the ISO that
weren't slipstreamed.
"Ubuntu's graphical installation process is a lot faster,
especially considering the number of applications included. Its
updating can take longer but the package manager updates
everything, not just the OS. I use an internal mirror with
netbooting via PXELinux that's partially automated using Kickstart
so my installations are very fast and already updated. You can
achieve some of the same benefits on Windows with the AIK, WinPE,
WDS, and slipstreaming but you still have to deal with licensing,
product activation, and updating. Windows Update only covers
Microsoft products so other applications need their own update
functions else you have to do them manually. Like Ubuntu and Debian
most Linux distributions come with text or graphical installers or
both. Text installers are not as friendly but work on systems with
limited memory. Graphical installers are easier but require more
memory. Many of them are integrated into Live CDs that can be used
for web browsing or playing music while the OS is being installed
in the background. There are a few Windows Live CDs, mostly based
on BartPE. I haven't tried any of them but once I made a Windows 98
Live CD with a DriveSpace volume that had Quake installed as a
feasibility study for RAM disk usage on an embedded system. Using
Windows 98 on an embedded system was STUPID but I wasn't the
engineer in charge of the project."
