Re: d-i vs openSUSE's ancient installer
Harald Dunkel wrote:
>I did not mean to start a flame war, but to suggest to give openSUSE's
>installer a try, just to see how it works. Maybe some ideas (like the
>"big" configuration window instead of asking for [OK] or [BACK] on every
>screen) can be useful for Debian, too.
I understand that, and did not take it as flaming. I even share a
preference for 'parallel' setup screens as opposed to 'serial'
questions, but understand some of the constraints of D-I make this more
difficult, such as the limited space on a "businesscard" image or the
performance penalty of a screen refresh over a serial link.
All Linux has much more in common as family than with other operating
systems, or even different releases from the same company. However, when
you come into the locker room of a football team and express admiration
for another team, you should expect some 'trash talk' about their
weaknesses as well.
Mostly I replied because the Debian Project (which includes Debian
Installer) seems to have many goals and constraints that other distros
have not shared. This leads to design choices for the installer that
make it appear less sophisticated in the eyes of some reviewers, and
public opinion about Debian has suffered from that. The fact that
installing Linux is increasingly a one-time event for many distros has
been lost amid much discussion of how to make this one-time event look
good to users of other operating systems, especially those where reboot,
reinstall, replace is common.
Over the years I have watched D-I go through a gradual process of
continuous improvement, and certainly expect more changes in the future.
The graphical installer interface, which improved support for some
languages and managed to consolidate a few prompts, is one example. If a
better presentation can be arranged without hurting the capabilities I
mentioned earlier, I'm sure that will be tested and accepted as such
contributions have been in the past.
--Don
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