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On Thursday 21 August 2003 05:36 am, Stewart Honsberger wrote: |
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> Gentoo's installation is great because it is simple, elegant, and |
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> powerful. It's not cluttered with every "user-friendly" (read: attempt |
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> at idiot-proof) tool known to man. |
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|
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No, but tools should be obvious to the user when they can be without losing |
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any functionality. Nano, for example, makes itself quite obvious how to use |
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and is not, AFAIK, explained anywhere in the manual. cfdisk is obvious in the |
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same way. As far as the manual goes, neither nano nor cfdisk lack any needed |
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functionality. |
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|
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> Gentoo sets a bar at a certain height, and expects users to acheive that |
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> height in order to get their system off the ground. How many times are |
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> we going to lower the bar? As with every "user-friendly" system, |
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> eventually along comes a better idiot. |
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|
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InGen itself is designed to make even someone who has never used a computer |
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before able to install Gentoo. There could then be a problem with having |
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idiots using Gentoo, but I'm sure something can be found to keep them |
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seperate from "real" users. |
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|
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> fdisk is a simple, standard, powerful partition table editor. I've used |
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> Linux's fdisk to repair botched tables more times than I can count. |
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> Instructions for use can be very simple. |
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|
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Instructions for fdisk can be simple, as opposed to not really needing |
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instructions for cfdisk at all... I'm not saying exclude fdisk (it can't be |
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that big), but there's no reason to use it by default (eg in the manual). |
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|
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> The last patch of the slope is the Vi(M) discussion. "Vi is hard" seems |
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> like a bit of a cop-out to me. Vi can be summed-up in half a dozen lines; |
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> |
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> vi <filename> - Load file for editing |
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> /<keyword> - search |
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> |
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> :w - Write file to disk |
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> :q - Quit |
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> |
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> Commands can be combined, eg; :wq - Write file to disk and Quit |
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> |
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> Five lines and users have all the knowledge they need to create / edit |
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> their base system files. A few more short lines and you can explain |
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> (global) search/replace to give them more advanced functionality. |
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I don't see anything in those *4* lines explaining how to enter data (eg 'i' |
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or 'a'), but like fdisk, vi would require explaining how to use it whereas |
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nano is obvious, so it should be includes, but not in the manual. |
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|
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> I've been seeing a lot of talk, even since the day I first wandered into |
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> Gentoo's user support areas (IRC, forums, mailing lists) about |
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> 'graphical installation front-ends', install scripts, etc. |
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> |
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> Gentoo has always been a great tool for getting users accustomed to |
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> their system from the inside out. Do we want to remain that way, or do |
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> we want to become "Just Another (Half-Assed) User-Friendly Linux |
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> Distro"? The likes of RedHat, Mandrake, and SuSE have fully graphical |
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> installation utilities that make the Windows install look complicated; |
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> five clicks and an hour later you're staring at your gorgeous KDE |
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> desktop. If we're going to aim towards user-friendlines on installation, |
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> we're already several years behind right out of the starting gate. Can |
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> we possibly compete with that? (Not to mention their respective |
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> corporate funding) |
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|
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Of course we can. Gentoo can be for everyone at the same time. There is no |
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reason we need to get rid of the manual/stages to include a GUI. InGen helps |
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with this by making the GUI too simple for most "real" users to like, |
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therefore most (all?) current users will continue to use the manual |
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installation, as well as new experienced users. |
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|
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> I'm of the opinion that we have to set barriers; lines in the sand, if |
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> you will. "This is how friendly we will become" and stick to those |
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> boundaries. This would, of course, also help with the consistency issues |
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> that are raised weekly on this list. ;> |
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|
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I agree we may need to keep the "idiot" and "real user" communities seperate, |
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but there's no reason both cannot exist. |
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- -- |
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Luke-Jr |
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Developer, Gentoo Linux |
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http://www.gentoo.org/ |
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