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Paul de Vrieze wrote: |
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>On Thursday 22 January 2004 18:02, Donnie Berkholz wrote: |
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> |
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> |
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>>Oh you of little faith. Someone approached karltk at LWE with a |
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>>completed python+gtk2 installer. See http://pen2.sclab.clarkson.edu/. |
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>> |
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>>I quote Karl: |
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>>"What's more, they're going to be working actively on this |
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>>irrespectively of whether we officially start using it or not. I |
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>>personally would think it completely stupid not to seriously consider |
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>>this most generous offer; they are an entire sw development team, they |
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>>seem organised, they have api docs, and they're long-time gentoo users. |
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>>Having them do most of the dirty-work, leaves us to do integration and |
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>>tweaks, to polish this thing off." |
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>> |
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>> |
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> |
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>Looks quite ok. There are some point I think are of interest though which |
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>basically come down to "there is no expert mode": |
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>- There is access to a partitioning tool, let alone qtparted or similar. |
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>- Only a very rough package selection is available. |
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>- I don't know whether it is smart to offer a no-network setup to newbee's, |
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> gentoo has a rather strong assumption on the network being available. |
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> |
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>In general I think we should decide on what kind of installer we want, who do |
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>we want to target? Do we want to target newbee's. Do we want to offer |
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>software based on detected available hardware (offer sane if a supported |
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>scanner was detected) |
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> |
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>Paul |
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> |
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> |
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> |
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The project looks like a very good start. My concerns go along with |
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what Paul was mentioning. Here goes: |
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|
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1. "Expert Mode": yes this is something that is needed, but I think the |
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expert mode should be no more than just a console with maybe an easier |
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way to view the install documention. The current method of install, |
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although some think it is a disadvantage of gentoo, I think that it is |
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an advantage, even for the intermediate/entry level gentoo users. A not |
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so experienced user can learn so much by going through that install. Or |
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even, the expert mode could be as little as "reboot and insert basic liveCD" |
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|
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2. Advanced Package selection: This would be a great addition to both |
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the installer and the desktop in general. |
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3. Gtk2: I am thinking that this may not be the best interface to use. |
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How will this fair with those putting gentoo on very slow/old machines. |
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Also for those doing an install through ssh would not be able to benifit |
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from this. Maybe curses would be the way to go? There are already many |
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tools that are already made for curses(menuconfig, ufed, net-setup). Or |
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heck maybe there could be support for both. |
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Overall I think the big concern is those user that are stuck in between |
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the two categories(beginer and expert). This is also probably the group |
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that needs to be "targeted". These are the people, who I would say, who |
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want a customized system but don't want to go through all the "trouble" |
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of the install now. I think the best solution for this is just to do |
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each individual step or group of steps as much as possible in graphical |
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mode, but allow the user to switch back and forth between "graphical |
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mode" and "console mode". This way they can ease their way into |
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intalling gentoo the _real_ way. |
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Most gentoo users are above the involment level of this installer. But |
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hopefully in the future gentoo will attract some that this would be |
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perfect for. This is a great start, and it is good to see that a |
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project like this is in the making! |
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|
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Scott |
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-- |
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