Date: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:18:22 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com> Cc: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr>, Tim Judd <tajudd@gmail.com>, List <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, FreeBSD Subject: Re: Modern FreeBSD Installer? Message-ID: <20090426211822.77e8dd6b.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <a333b2be0904261152o7a8c40b4q685940f223c08621@mail.gmail.com> References: <BLU0-SMTP493F2C64E33D39A37EF75DD8740@phx.gbl> <ade45ae90904251645s350689fdj31164457172f6630@mail.gmail.com> <20090426001855.GA89151@owl.midgard.homeip.net> <87zle3mii0.fsf@kobe.laptop> <a333b2be0904261152o7a8c40b4q685940f223c08621@mail.gmail.com>
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On Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:52:56 -0400, Mehmet Erol Sanliturk <m.e.sanliturk@gmail.com> wrote: > For such reasons , personally , I hate > > (1) auto-start installations . Dangerous. Simply dangerous. Something as important an the installation of an operating system should not rely on assumptions and guessings... "the user will want to install me on one slice, I wipe the whole disk, then put everything into one big / partition, and by the way, install KDE and all kinds of servers which I run automatically, if needed or not, because sometimes someone could need some of the services." > (2) auto-detect parts without asking correctness of detection when its > conclusion is not verifiable > by the installers > [...] > ( erroneously detection of monitor resolutions and using a default > resolution which is not usable > due to mismatch to display characteristics of the monitor ) ... ) In regards of X, this happens often enough. A possible workaround would be some kind of fail-safe minimal setting, such as 800x600 which should (!) work everywhere. Of course, all the display stuff of the installer would need to fit onto a 800x600 screen. If not - big problem: cannot reach controls, even cannot see them. > With respect to experiences gained continuously installing operating systems > , my idea about FreeBSD sysinstal is that it is an excellent installation > system developed by very conscious persons which they know what to do very > well . The installer, on the other hand, relies on the user - that he knows what he's doing. If I just go there and clickityclick, I can't expect the system to read my mind. :-) > The points I suggested for improvements are toward to make it easy for the > beginners . For a computing system , to satisfy needs of both beginners and > expert users is not a very easy task . This could be achieved through "installation profiles" with a well-intended set of selections (partition, things to install, preconfiguration). The installers of PC-BSD and DesktopBSD exactly do this already. They offer a preconfigured X / KDE environment for average users. The installation process is made so easy that it's quite impossible to fail here. > Making a part easy for a group may > make it difficult for other group . Difficult, and, in the following, impossible. This will be the point when even long-time FreeBSD users will abandon this system. > Using defaults is not always correct > due to hardware detection difficulties . Any defaults should be as fail-safe as possible, and that's a very hard question how to set them. > My inclination is toward the beginners as much as possible because this > approach will enlarge FreeBSD user group . And again, I may say that PC-BSD and DesktopBSD exactly do this. Those who want to use "pure FreeBSD" are usually intelligent (sorry) enough to have no problems with sysinstall. Anything than sysinstall makes it harder for them to learn, and finally, it's about learning when you're using an operating system. > When I was in University a research assistant was working toward a PhD in > Ergonomy by researching user interface software design principles to reduce > the human errors during control of a system ( for example , effects of menu > depths ) . It starts way before this point: You have three buttons. Which to make the default button? Human perception. Use colours. Which colours? Colour blindness, anyone? Attention distraction. Where to put the buttons? What to put on the screen along with them? Giving an alert: How? I could go on for hours. :-) -- Polytropon >From Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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