Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001 09:49:18 -0400 From: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> To: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral Message-ID: <3B4B07DE.4801D208@iowna.com> References: <20010706144935.A61843@xor.obsecurity.org> <3B4650D0.97F10B83@bellatlantic.net> <20010707002340.B16071@widomaker.com> <20010707004731V.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> <3B49F8D5.2C9BFA73@mindspring.com> <3B4A0124.26025FB5@iowna.com> <3B4A1423.E8E365E@mindspring.com> <86ofqth6p3.fsf@hades.hell.gr> <3B4A7D9C.A64230D9@softweyr.com>
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Wes Peters wrote: > Oh, come now. FreeBSD's disk partitioning has always sucked. It does suck > somewhat less than many Linux linstallers, and a lot less than the OpenBSD > installer, but it still shoves way too many details and options at the > average user. Something akin to PartitionMagic would be an ideal way to go, > given unlimited resources to throw against this particular problem. Now, I've never used partition magic, but I (personally) find the FreeBSD partition program in sysinstall to be the easiest one I've ever used. What should be changed to make it easier? > The main problem with sysinstall all along has been that it is a one-off > program. There is no glitz in writing installers, and they're only used > once, then rarely if ever again. I disagree. I use sysinstall constantly. There's no easier way to install packages. I also direct newbies to use sysinstall to tweak parameters and install software. Especially on my home desktop system where I'm constantly installing/uninstalling software. As previously stated, I find the partitioning a perfect combination of easy to use/easy to control that I almost always use it when adding disks. While I won't disagree that there are things in sysinstall that can be improved (for example, you seem to get lost in menus at times) I don't think it should ever be pawned off as something that a user only sees once. Lurk -questions for a while and see how often a newbie is directed back to sysinstall to correct something or install a package. > OTOH, if you really want to take a stab at a FreeBSD problem that will > make you famous should you succeed, we'd all like to see a lovely, simple > installer that will run on both direct attached VGA and a serial console, > is lovely and well thought out, and intuitive to use. Extra points if you > can run it over X across the network. Obviously, these improvements would be good. -Bill To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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