"Austin L. Denyer" wrote: > > This is my opinion..... > > > > I sit on both edges of the OS fence (I use M$ aat work and Linux at > home.) > > Unfortunately, I can not see giving most of the users I work with any > linux > > packages at all. They would never get past the installations. Does this > > mean they are ignorant. Yep! But, you would not want me doing brain > > surgery either. > > > > I think LM should be working towards an "ignorant user" install option as > > well (I like the ideas in the previous message!). If you really want to > > convince the companies of "proprietary products" that the platform is one > > they need to pay attention to, then we have to convince the general public > > of the value of Linux as well. That is never going to happen when they > can > > not do the first 5% (installation) in relative ease and lack of thought. > M$ > > has the right idea when it comes to that 95% of the market that is > computer > > tech illiterate. They take away the choices. It keeps them (the user) > from > > being overwhelmed. > > > > To me, an "ignorant user" pacakge would come with a desktop or two to > choose > > from at install time, but only one gets installed. Yeah - this flies in > the > > face of what most of us want on our systems. But, before we are going to > > get the "masses" to use Linux/Un*x of any type, the confusion of > > installation (read too many choices) has to vanish. The installation > > package would also contain the mainstream "products" that are being used > and > > agressively developed in the Linux/Un*x world. But, only one or two > choices > > from each type, and GUI based. Embrace what has worked for M$ (ease of > use > > up front, limited choices to the end user, ...) and extend it beyond their > > ability (Read stability, powere, etc in addition). I hate being forced to > > make money on M$ products, and would love to see M$ replaced with a sane > > platform. Believe it or not, it starts at the installation for most of my > > users. > > > > Outside of the use of FUD, these are the time proven tactics that M$ has > > used to squash competition and large scale innovation, and win support of > > the masses. > > What does everyone else think? > > I agree. We need a 'newbie' install option that makes all the technical > decisions for you, as well as the other install options for those with more > knowledge. > > Also, we could use a more 'user-friendly' way for the 'newbie' to install > additional packages at a later date. An option to automagically > install/download dependencies would be useful too - apologies if this is > already in the newer releases; I am still on 7.0 until the weekend. > > Some Windoze applications have a 'basic' and 'expert' interface. The basic > interface hides the complicated stuff from the user, but the expert > interface still allows all functionality for the more experienced user. > > Another member of the group recommended taking out the repeated packages > with similar functionality - I don't think that would work. There would be > far too many holy wars re-started as to what is taken out. A better > approach would be to more clearly indicate the pros and cons of the > applications included, so that the user is better placed to make an informed > decision as to what he wants. > > Just my $0.02 (Florida residents add 7% sales tax) > > Regards, > Ozz. > > --------------------------------------------- > Keep in touch with http://mandrakeforum.com: > Subscribe the "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" mailing list. Perhaps a two part installer. Part one is totally automated, and sets up everything that it can be really sure about. Then the second phase which should have, say 4 level 1 choices, each of which have an update variant: a) Easy Install : assume that the user doesn't have any idea about what's going one. Obey the rule "First, do no harm". Automated install that asks as few questions as possible. b) Power User : This title is chosen to make the user feel good. It actually refers to the skill level of someone who writes Excel macros. A bit adventurous. Give them lots of choices that are harmless. Be sure that their network connections are safe. c) Customized: This guy is expected to be able to handle fdisk, set up partitions, choose what should be formatted, etc. This is the one that has choices on network access that read (1)wide open, (2)normal, (3)cautious, (4)paranoid. Applications are in groups, but the user can open up the group to select or deselect any package that is chosen. E.g., if the user select Editors, the opened list will show ed, edlin, vim, joe, ... all selected. The user is allowed to choose to unselect particular ones. d) Expert: This isn't really a standard installer. It starts with three choices: 1) recovery: Assumes that the software has already been installed, and that it needs fixing. This has a large pallet of tools, as it doesn't assume that the versions already installed on the disk are reliable. (You may think you've been rooted.) 2) installer: This one lists all of the packages, and lets one install either the package, or selected files from the package. (Presumably the original install was done with one of the other levels. But you CAN select packages to install from here. It would just be very inconvenient to select many of them.) 3) scripted: This one starts with three options. a) "Write a basic installer script to the floppy" (Probably not necessary, but useful.) The basic installer script should be a disk that is bootable, given that the CD is inserted. It should be sufficient to do the customized install, and can be machine specific if it must, but I'd rather it wasn't. b) Edit the floppy script. c) Run the script from the floppy. What I really have in mind for this option is that SysAdmins would be able to set it up to do a custom install, but with all of the questions answered by the script. That way when a new machine came in, they could just take the CD and the floppy, and boot the machine with the CD in place, and the floppy in the drive. Possibly the computer would need to be set to boot from the CD, even when the floppy was present. Then they could depend on autoprobing to handle most hardware changes, but the script should be in, say, Python. That way complex choices could be made. The script would, for instance, ask the installer how big the disk was, and once it had the answer it would calculate how much space for each partition, what partition type, etc. -- (c) Charles Hixson -- Addition of advertisements or hyperlinks to products specifically prohibited
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