Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 02:20:10 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Bill Moran <wmoran@iowna.com> Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral Message-ID: <3B4C0C3A.64E05112@softweyr.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> <3B4B07DE.4801D208@iowna.com> <3B4B1B66.C011BF2B@softweyr.com> <3B4B32F3.7AC70D66@iowna.com>
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Bill Moran wrote:
>
> Wes Peters wrote:
>
> > Allow
> > the user to grab the ends of partitions we can manipulate and move them
> > around, either through keyboard navigation or with a mouse.
>
> Hmmm ... we're really aiming at novice users here now, aren't we? I
> suppose
> that's not a bad thing, but I just never thought of going so far with
> it.
>
> > Focus on the
> > task we're attempting to accomplish: slicing the disk into 1 to 4 differnt
> > logical parts, rather than on the crufty underlying details.
>
> Hmmm ... well, I was never upset with the "crufty details" ... I rather
> like
> to know what's going on under the hood all the time. Then again, that's
> me. If you're targeting newbies and other less-educated (or less "I sure
> would like to figure this out" inclined) people, then what you're
> suggesting would probably be a good idea.
Uh, yeah, by definition, we're targeting people who have never seen
FreeBSD before -- that's what an installer is all about. This is a
lesson I had pounded into me the hard way many years ago by Rob Clyde,
who was at that time trying to get people to buy the software I was
writing. The lesson: "If they can't install it, they'll never know
how good it is."
That lesson led to a rather graceless 30-day slip in a very important
release, to give our 3-man team time to write a multi-architecture,
across-the-network installation tool. It added zero value to the
product itself, but made it so that independant auditors from the
"Big 8" accounting firms could install our security monitoring package
easily on every machine at a customer site, using a 30-day "walk
around" license, run their audits, present the reports to their
customer, and leave the software installed with a couple of weeks of
license left. Within 6 months, half our sales were converted walk
around licenses left by auditors.
I'll close and bow out of this bikeshed by quoting Rob again: "If
they can't install it, they'll never know how good it is." This is
probably the only POSITIVE less Rob Clyde ever taught me, but it's
a good one.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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