On Sat, Jul 25, 2015 at 10:44:19AM +0200, Alan McKinnon wrote: > On 25/07/2015 10:28, Neil Bothwick wrote: > > On Fri, 24 Jul 2015 13:07:20 -0600, Justin Findlay wrote: > > > >>> Gentoo does not need an 'installer'. We have way too many people not > >>> being able to read simple instructions already or spending 5minutes on > >>> google&thinking for themselves. Just look at this mailing list. We > >>> really don't need more of them. > >> > >> I disagree. There are always going to be people who don't read > >> instructions or who don't even share your intuition about things. > > > > They are called Ubuntu users - they and Ubuntu are welcome to one another. > > > > Are you saying you would want on influx of people who can't be bothered > > to read or think for themselves? > > > Please good lord no. Let's not have that again. > > Once a year or so this list gets flooded by a new bunch of folks who > spew forth an unending stream of simple questions and can't be bothered > to look further than their nose. And these folks never contribute back. > > Gentoo requires that the user has a decent amount of clue and has a > good idea of what they want. Plus a healthy dose of "ah fuck it, I can > figure this out for myself". > > It's not elitism to say that, it's a simple statement of fact about who > the target market is. Folks looking for pointy-click installers are not > it. Neither are ricers.
To a point I agree with this, however I am also reluctant to discourage new users who are coming from *buntu or Mandriva/Mandrake or other distros from joining our community because of being scared of from their first kernel panic. I think an "installer", for lack of a better term, could be a good thing - something to help guide new users through the process, or like the suggested "check things likely to be missed" would help prevent new users being scared off. I still think the Handbook is an invaluable resource, and consider it a hallmark of Gentoo. I also agree that going through a build using the handbook is akin to a right of passage; but perhaps the handbook could be delivered as part of the installer (I'm just spit-balling, here). I'm not saying something like kickstart or similar that does everything to a predefined config since that would defeat the key goal of Gentoo; but something to make it just that little bit easier for new users to *see* if their system is good or not. Additionally, it could be expanded with an answers-file like mechanism to allow experienced users (or anyone else, I guess) to set up an automated rollout. On the topic of Gentoo public relations; I agree that it would be beneficial to increase the visibility of Gentoo alongside Fedora or *buntu. Granted the resources of Gentoo Foundation aren't limitless, this would also be alleviated to some extent with an increase in users - more users, more donations, and more potential attention from other entities, etc. That's my two cents, anyway. -- wraeth <[email protected]> GnuPG Key: B2D9F759
