On Sun, Apr 26, 2009 at 1:28 PM, Giorgos Keramidas <[email protected] > wrote:
> On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 02:18:55 +0200, Erik Trulsson <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Better would be to check (somehow) for the presence of a keyboard and > > a screen. If those are not present forget about X. If they are > > present then the user at least has a possibility of using X. > > Deferring to the user all the decisions that are impossible to make with > a reasonable chance of doing the Right Thing for everyone seems ok too. > > Solaris has been shipping for quite some time with an installer that can > run on serial consoles, an installer that can launch a simple > terminal-based session under X11, and an installer that can launch a > Java GUI version in all its bloated glory. > > The decision of which installer to launch is left to the user who sits > on the boot console, who is presented with a simple menu like: > > +-------------------------------------------------------+ > | | > | Please select installation type (default = 3): _ | > | | > | 1. Text-only console installation. | > | | > | 2. Terminal based GUI installation. | > | | > | 3. Dialog driven GUI installation. | > | | > +-------------------------------------------------------+ > > There is also a timeout that launches the user-friendly GUI dialogs > after a few seconds. > > I think this is a reasonable approach to the problem of which > installation mode to launch. The default is `user friendly', there is a > timeout so the installer won't get stuck forever in the prompt, and > there is still an option for a plain console-based installation for > everyone who wants to go that way. > > _ > Last week I have installed Solaris 10 ( 2008-10 ) on a PC ( x86 ) having an Intel main board . It did not recognize Philips 220WS LCD ( 1680 x 1050 ) monitor and selected itself a text-mode install and also booted in text mode . I moved its hard disk to a PC with an Asus main board having an attached CRT Philips 109B6 ( maximum resolution : 1920 x 1440 ) monitor . Since boards were different , Solaris 10 could not boot . I started an upgrade installation . During that time it become necessary to leave PC for a while assuming that installation will wait . With its count down and start by itself in its GUI mode . it started to install automatically . At the end , the install become useless because its default detections were not what parts were there ( I think it used previously detected parts without checking the present parts except monitor and perhaps some others , I do not know exactly .) . For such reasons , personally , I hate (1) auto-start installations . (2) auto-detect parts without asking correctness of detection when its conclusion is not verifiable by the installers ( for example (ADSL router modem is not detected correctly even its network card is detected and installation continued with assumption that there is no such a device . ) ( erroneously detection of monitor resolutions and using a default resolution which is not usable due to mismatch to display characteristics of the monitor ) ... ) With respect to experiences gained continuously installing operating systems , my idea about FreeBSD sysinstal is that it is an excellent installation system developed by very conscious persons which they know what to do very well . The points I suggested for improvements are toward to make it easy for the beginners . For a computing system , to satisfy needs of both beginners and expert users is not a very easy task . Making a part easy for a group may make it difficult for other group . Using defaults is not always correct due to hardware detection difficulties . My inclination is toward the beginners as much as possible because this approach will enlarge FreeBSD user group . In reality , design of a user interface is within subject areas of Ergonomy , Human-Computer Interaction , and User Interface Design which there are plenty amount of researches about those subjects , and many scientific journals and books . When I was in University a research assistant was working toward a PhD in Ergonomy by researching user interface software design principles to reduce the human errors during control of a system ( for example , effects of menu depths ) . Thank you very much . Mehmet Erol Sanliturk _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[email protected]"
