After years of installing Linux distros, I found my self caught up in the Solaris momentum and installed OpenSolaris on an x86 computer. I found the installer more difficult to use than Linux installers from a number of years ago. The main issues that I found were:
1. There was no "BACK" key on many of the installer screens (they start only late in the installation process). Why isn't there a "BACK" option on each of the installation displays? As well, this might eliminate the need for the "confirmation" screens - which I found annoying. 2. The graphical installer didn't provide much functionality other than opening a text window on a graphical display. I personally prefer the OpenSolaris text installer to the graphical one. There should be a way to get a mouse to work in the text installer as well. 3. The network setup is overly complex. I instructed the installer to use DHCP, and later DNS. It then asked questions about the DNS server, domain name and search domains. However, all this information is available from the DHCP server. Why did the installer setup need to ask for the DNS information? 4. At then end of the "graphical" installation a prompt appeared, without any instructions on how to proceed. 5. The automatic disk partitioner did not make a respectable automatic disk partition suggestion (using an empty 9GB disk). It seems that Solaris installation is well tuned to large organizations via JumpStart. However, I think that without much effort, many of these issues could be resolved. This would benefit sysadmins who are trying out Solaris for the first time. We should not need to wait for a Caiman release. This message posted from opensolaris.org
