Re: Bug#758116: Allow to select Blends selection during installation - just "DE", "Web server", "Mail server" is NOT enough

[Ole Streicher <olebole@debian.org>]

On 18.05.2016 10:58, Petter Reinholdtsen wrote:
> [Ole Streicher]
>> In my opinion, the situation for the Debian Pure Blends is better here
>> than for the Desktop environments: If a user doesn't know what the
>> Blends mean, he just ignores it and doesn't install anything from it.
> 
> An unskilled user do not ignore options he do not understand, he worries
> and tries to understand them in order to avoid making a mistake that
> will bother him in the future.  If you believe options that are unknown
> or confusing do not cause any harm, I am quite sure you are mistaken.
> They increase the cognitive strain and force people to spend time trying
> to understand that the option can be ignored.  They also slow down the
> installation process.

Again, this questiones the whole tasksel step during the installation:
As Christian points out, the majority of users doesn't understand what
"Desktop Environment" means, especially if is should decide whether he
needs "Cinnamon" or "Mate".

My own experiences are that I don't know anyone who understands the
"standard tools" item.

Compared to that, "DebiChem" is understandable: That has something to do
with chemistry. If the help would have been displayed, then he could
also know it. He then could also understand what a "Pure Blend" is. It
may help him to understand what a "Desktop environment" is. And maybe
someone finds a smart help text for the "standard tools".

If we really care that people should understand what they see, the first
issue *should* be to implement the help texts here.

> Note, I am not against the blends selection option during installation,
> but believe it should be introduced after taking the negative effects as
> well as the positive effects into account, not by claiming the negative
> effects do not exist.

I claim that they do not increase much. The issues are already there.

> There exist usability research indicating that more than 7 options will
> confuse the human brain and cause a lot of cognitive strain.  To me it
> tell us that we should avoid "just two screenfulls" of options, and
> instead try to make sure at most one screenfull, and preferably less
> than 7 options are presented in any dialog in the installer.

This is already violated in some steps of the installation. And we
already have 13 Blends; I don't see a good way to squeeze them into 7.

Best regards

Ole