Re: [gentoo-desktop-research] new to the list

[Eli M. Dow]

With regards to choice we felt for obvious [1] reasons that the
graphical installer should try to limit choices and make heavy use of
auto-detection. We did preserve the ability to alt-<some fn here> to
drop into the framebuffer console to cary on with the installation as is
done now. 

During the research phase of our project, the survey we conducted among
our target audience showed 50 percent were interested in making choices
for customization, while the other 50 percent simply chose to "go with
the defaults" on everything. We felt that we allowed a level of
customization acceptable to please the customization crowd while still
providing a simple installation method. 

The kickstart feature we have planned is also aimed at power users who
simply wish for a completely automated cloning procedure for an existing
system.

The biggest decision we made regarding user choice was to chose gnome as
our supported desktop environment. The framework we have created should
allow anyone to make a "KDE edition" or a "fluxbox edition" with minimal
effort (etc...). 
 



[1] - obvious in terms of our target user personas

On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 15:53, Paul de Vrieze wrote:
> On Monday 26 January 2004 21:45, Eli M. Dow wrote:
> > Hi everyone,
> >
> > I am one of the co-authors of the pen2 project. I was wondering what
> > people were thinking currently about the goals of a sanctioned gentoo
> > graphical installer.
> >
> > I don't have time to read the backlogs of this mailing list as my
> > semester is well underway. It would be excellent if someone could hit me
> > with a cluestick about the current consensus.
> >
> > I would also like to answer any questions people might have about pen2
> > and its design decisions.
> >
> > Please look at  http://pen2.sclab.clarkson.edu/ for those who haven't
> > heard of us or what we are trying to accomplish.
> >
> > Anonymous CVS should be set up soon hopefully. A private  internal cvs
> > server was used since this was for course credit. We also hope to have a
> > FAQ set up soon as well.
>
> You're project has allready hit the list. I think it is a good start.
> Currently we are mainly focussing on what we want from an installer. It will
> probably be some kind of hands-on installer with lots of flexibility. You are
> more than welcome to participate in the discussion (and later
> implementation). We are not really ready for implementation, but when we have
> decided on the features/design we can certainly try to incorporate pen2 into
> the installer.
>
> From my impression the pen2 installer is mainly aimed at providing an easy
> procedure. In general gentoo tries to have the first point of allowing
> choice. From that respect I think that more choice would be desired in the
> installer, but I think pen2 is indeed a good start.
>
> Paul
-- 
Eli M. Dow   
Graduate Student HCI Group @ Clarkson University
Clarkson University Open Source Institute [COSI]
http://cosi.clarkson.edu
IBM Poughkeepsie: Intern / All around savage            






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