Glynn Foster wrote:
On 16/07/2009, at 11:49 AM, Shawn Walker wrote:
Jean McCormack wrote:
There are several issues with respect to the addition of software
selection
in the installer that need to be addressed.
My first comment is to agree with Glynn, that I think this would be
better handled as a first-boot task using Visual Panels or the
packagemanager GUI itself somehow. Not only will that help keep the
installer substantially simpler, but it would avoid some of the
complexities that you're going to run into by trying to deal with
this during install time.
If you were producing a Live DVD that contained all of the software,
it might make more sense, but providing functionality for network-
based installs inside the installer seems like a needless
duplication of functionality already provided by packagemanager or
pkg(1).
Just for the record, I was advocating adding some sort of package
selection (or group package selection) in the installer originally. I
think you make a good point though, that perhaps this may be a better
inclusion for a first-boot task. I can still see the advantage of
being able to selectively install part of a LiveCD, LiveDVD or LiveUSB
(which could easily handle an entire repo) - those who may or may not
want a desktop environment being a common choice I think.
The way the Live CD is constructed is not conducive to partial installs,
except as an "install it all and then remove portions" implementation.
Going back a point: One of the problems with not offering selections in
the installer is that it can present the impression that packages which
aren't included on the media for space reasons are just not available,
at the critical time when the user is sticking a toe in the water. I
think that's an especially vital issue with (Open)Solaris, as lack of
available software has been a persistent impression that we're fighting
hard to address.
Beyond that issue, requiring a two-step (install, reboot, then work on
it) to get the popular things presents a fairly clunky experience, in my
opinion. The point here is not to be perfect, hence the limited
selection set being proposed, but to be good enough in a lot of cases.
Dave
_______________________________________________
pkg-discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/pkg-discuss
