Re: Desktop task broken on !(i386/powerpc)
On Thu, Jan 06, 2005 at 01:17:04PM +0100, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> [Christian Perrier]
> > We're dealing here with a quite informal population of people wanting
> > to "easily" install Debian and indeed we're probably having hard times
> > in figuring out exactly what they might expect.
>
> Yes. And some of these do not want the congintive strain that options
> they do not understand will give them. All extra options and
> flexibility will scare some unskilled users away. I've seen untrained
Do you really think that anyone installing debian will be baffled when asked
to choose between the gnome or KDE desktop ? Do you seriously believe that ?
I bet those people will probably be more confused by the various server tasks.
> users stopp on the first screen on the woody installer (you know, the
> large text block explaining that all you need to do to continue is
> press [ENTER]), and sit down and read it for several minutes trying to
> understand what it said. For these, all extra options increase their
> confusion, and make them more insecure during the installation
> process.
Do you want a gnome desktop or a KDE desktop ? Do you think this question is
all so difficult ?
> For these, we should hide as much complexity and flexibility as
> possible.
And you think it is easier for them to discover the KDE desktop once they have
GDM running ? What do you imagine our current disk requirements are ?
And to respond to Joeyh in a previous mail, sorry, but there is no common
complexity measure between a partitioning stage, which is something real scary
since a bad step can kill your disks, and most people are aware of that, and
asking if one wants a choice of KDE or Gnome or Both or None ? If we had a
graphic installer we would show the user with a screenshot of both, and that
would be even more trivial. But the question of if one wants a gnome or kde
desktop is quite easy to grasp by every Bob user out there, and if he doesn't
like one, he can always reinstall and chose the other.
So i seriously don't get it in how you can even remotely compare this with
disk partitioning.
> I normally ask people to imagine their religions teacher doing the
> install. It is normally a little easier to imagine than Bob User, as
> Bob User is different for all users. My religions teacher was not
> very technically skilled. Your grandmother might work as well, when
> you try to imagine how an unskilled user will react to questions and
> options.
But i bet you that the choice of KDE or Gnome is something every user out
there can make. Evidently if we had some kind of description and
documentations for tasks, it would be easier.
> How you you explain the difference of KDE and Gnome to your
> grandmother, in a way to allow her to make an informed choice between
> them? In tasksel, you got around 40 characters to do it. :)
They chose one, install it, don't like it, install the other. The new
installer is easy to use, so it should be no problem :)
And for the really unenlightened people, the right way is to make a choice of
one desktop for them, like the ubuntu people have done, and to bypass the
question at all.
Friendly,
Sven Luther
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