On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 8:05 AM, Dave Miner <dminer at opensolaris.org> wrote: > Glenn Lagasse wrote: > ... > > The above represents one of the criteria that have been applied in > considering tasks available in the OpenSolaris installer. ?Glenn's pointed > out one specific example that we haven't implemented yet, but remains under > consideration. > > Another that's specific to interactive installers is to perform the set of > tasks that "all" of the targeted users require in order to have a > functioning system at the conclusion of the installation process. ?I say > "all" because it's not truly 100%, but the threshold should be a > super-majority of, say, 80%. ?This protects the usability of the installer > for the majority by not inconveniencing them with unusual cases.
Depends on your targeted users. A common question I see is "how do I partition my drives and select the software to be installed?". Rather than simply saying that advanced uses aren't allowed, we should work out how to present an interface that allows expert use without interrupting the smooth flow for the common case. > Yet another criterion is whether the functionality truly requires user > input, or instead can be accommodated by changes to the system's default > behavior, or can be computed or inferred based on other choices. > > A key, but often overlooked, phrase in the above is *targeted users*. The > current GUI, and live CD, is primarily targeted at desktop/laptop users who > are new to OpenSolaris, because that represents a significant avenue for > attracting developers. There's no doubt that the new installer has some success in that area. I don't think that the Live CD is really suitable for the targeted developer - primarily because there are significant things missing off the Live CD (such as the total lack of any development tools). At the moment the Live CD is reasonable for NetBook style use (but even there is short of key applications) and demonstration, but it's a lot more work later to get it to a useful state for other usage patterns. Also, while it's good to get developers attracted to the platform, we need to make sure that they stay with the platform through deployment, and we're doing nothing to help there. -- -Peter Tribble http://www.petertribble.co.uk/ - http://ptribble.blogspot.com/
