Gentoo Archives: gentoo-installer

From: Andrew Gaffney <agaffney@g.o>
To: gentoo-installer@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-installer] educating users
Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 23:35:39
Message-Id: 432F4AE3.9010300@gentoo.org
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-installer] educating users by "Paul J. Wilson"
1 Paul J. Wilson wrote:
2 > The way I see it, the problem is not about the gentoo installer, but a
3 > problem of perceptions between the developers and the users. There is a
4 > further division between the "power users" and the "noobs".
5 >
6 > It's easier said than done, but each side should step outside their own
7 > experience. To a developer, "easy" meains opening VI and drawing on
8 > their knowledge of hot keys and bash syntax. To the average user, "easy"
9 > means selecting options from a menu , or not selecting anything at all
10 > to have things turn out as intended.
11
12 To me, "easy" means following the very clear directions layed out for you in the
13 install guide and being able to use nano. I may be wrong, but I believe my cat
14 can use nano.
15
16 > Regular, everyday users tend not to have the time to spend on the finter
17 > points of linux and gentoo in particular. If the aim of the gentoo
18 > installer project is to make Gentoo more accessable to these types of
19 > users, then it's not unreasonable to expect these users to reach out
20
21 That's not the aim. The aim is to make installs *faster* and more
22 automated...not easier.
23
24 > It's also obvious from the responses that some users do NOT find the
25 > handbook accessable. This can't be simply explained away by lack of
26 > intelligence. Again, what is obvious to some is not obvious to others,
27 > especially those who are not trained to think in technical terms.
28 > Brushing off the questions of every-day users as the work of "noobs" is
29 > a very easy and sloppy thing to do.
30
31 People who can't follow the handbook are people that can't pay attention long
32 enough to read a complete sentence. If someone can't install Gentoo because of
33 ADD, that's not our problem.
34
35 > There is a huge disconnect happening here. On the one hand, the Gentoo
36 > front matter seems to state that Gentoo is "all about choices" and goes
37 > on to strongly imply that the distribution can be all things to all
38 > users. There are a sub-set of users who 1. don't find the detail and
39 > fine-point instruction in the manual helpful 2. don't have the time to
40 > manually configure everything or 3. are not computer literate. It's
41 > obvious that there are large numbers of people who want to use gentoo
42 > but whose needs are not being met. I have the impression that the
43 > gentoo-installer project is an attempt to meet the needs of such users.
44
45 Gentoo is not exactly targeted at *any* of those groups of users. As stated
46 above, that is *not* the intention of the installer.
47
48 --
49 Andrew Gaffney http://dev.gentoo.org/~agaffney/
50 Gentoo Linux Developer Installer Project
51 --
52 gentoo-installer@g.o mailing list

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-installer] educating users "Paul J. Wilson" <paulj.wilson@×××××.com>
Re: [gentoo-installer] educating users David Marchbanks <hogosha@×××××××××××.org>