Bug#253069: debian-installer TC1 successful installation on Apple Powerbook G4

[stappers@stappers.nl (Geert Stappers)]

On Mon, Jun 07, 2004 at 07:21:34AM +0200, Christian Perrier wrote:
> Quoting Steve Langasek (vorlon@debian.org):
> 
> > Although being able to suggest usernames is a nice feature, my wife (who
> > rarely has occasion to add users or install systems :) also stumbled at
> > this point in the installer during a usability test, expecting this to
> > be a prompt about a username rather than a full name.  It may be that
> > she's atypically steeped in Unix tradition, and that most newcomers to
> > Debian will think in terms of people names rather than usernames, but at
> > least some people are confused by the present order.
> 
> I've seen Steve's wife confused and I confirm...:-)
> 
> This change was motivated by  wishlist bug which, at this time, seemed
> rather logical when dealing with nonUnix people.
Please asume smart people.

> 
> However, as James reaction shows, people used to older installs will
> nearly automatically apply the old scheme (login, then "real" name)
> without reading the bloody screens...:-). I specifically remember
> Steve just saying Patty "just read the screens"....
> 
> Indeed the prompt in the shadow package should here be far more clear
> (such as "Real name (first name+family name)" or whatever...). In the
> past, we had "Debian User" here which made evident what was
> asked....however, there were also wishlist bugs for removing this
> default as a lot of dumb user installs then had "Debian User" as gecos
> for the first created user.
Gee, please educate users.
There is no harm in default on "Debian User" for gecos.

They are installing a Unix system.
The computer wants and uses usernames.
It does not care about the gecos field, except for E-mail.


Hiding technical information will boomerang us later.


> 
> This is really tricky. IMHO, changing this template would be good. I
> wait for us to get a better access to the shadow package so that
> changing this template becomes easy (as well as fixing translations).

Okay, sounds good.


Cheers
Geert Stappers