Comment Re:What a load of crap. (Score 1) 197
Or, you know, you could have downloaded the drivers on another box and put them on a USB stick. What sort of tech journalist only has one computer?
I agree that a USB stick could be used, but I would have probably used a USB network adapter as well. Windows does not always have the drivers out of the box either. From I have observed if you want to install Windows on a computer using Intel RST, you either have to turn the feature off in the UEFI or figure out how to add the driver at install time. If I have one computer I add the driver to a folder on the USB drive, As the number of computers grow I am more likely to use DISM to inject the drivers. Once on a new install Windows did not have the network driver, I found it easier to USB tether my phone since it was already on my person. Windows Update or the hardware manufactures update tool will quickly add the missing drivers once any form of network connection is established. So far the only types of drivers I have felt the need to slipstream into a Windows install image is the storage driver or network driver, once the OS is installed Windows will automatically start downloading the drivers from the Internet if it can. I have seen the the flickering of the screen indicating a video driver update after finishing the OOBE before running anything else.
Lots of things are currently made with the assumption that Internet access is available. Debian has a 64MB image designed for booting and installing everything from the Internet. Some distributions avoid distributing non free firmware by default but allow them to be enabled and downloaded via the package manager. That process is not terrible for graphics drivers, usually the open / free drivers let you see something and the non free drivers may offer better performance. The process is more difficult if your network adapter requires the non free firmware as some Wireless chipsets do.