On 03.01.2014 21:37, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
I like the fact a debian base system by default is a working base system, with no useless junk for me to have to remove later. Perhaps if I slected 'graphical desktop' in the task selector, then it could be considered, but as part of the default base system, no way.
This is probably the best way to add plymouth, as it doesn't make sense without a graphical desktop.
It hides all the 'strange' boot messages, that 'novices' are not accustomed to and instead presents a nice image.And how does one get accustomed to useful stuff if it is hidden? They are not scary. Back in the DOS days, no one seemed to have any issue using a computer with strange messages while starting.
It is easier to learn one thing at a time, first the new desktop environment, the new office program, and so on. I think many desktop users will never need to see the boot messages, but while/if they explore the operating system, they may sooner or later come across the possibility.
I'm not so sure, that nobody is scared away by these messages. Many people start using linux with a distribution like Ubuntu, that does install plymouth by default. (And back in the DOS days, people had other expectations about what an operating system should look like.)
I think it is a bad idea to assume new users are idiots that would be scared of stuff they haven't seen before. They are trying something other than Windows after all, so they clearly must be interesting in trying out new stuff.
I wouldn't call myself an idiot, but it took me quite some time to explore (some of) the vast possibilities a modern linux distribution offers. Trying to understand boot messages was by far not the first thing I was interested in.
Probably it makes booting slower, because it has to load the background image. I haven't seen any noticeable speed difference, but I haven't measured it exactly.Well making it slower would certainly be a reason not to include it. If it actually made it faster, that would be something.
I tried to measure it, but my boot time has too large fluctuations to get any meaningful result.
Best regards, Andreas