Re: bad press at www.linuxworld.com

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On Thu, Sep 14, 2000 at 08:17:53AM -0400, Dale Scheetz wrote:
> Why should the user even be involved in any of these
> questions. It's on the CD. If the installation
> program doesn't find it in the "default" location
> (/instmnt/debian/dists/stable/main/disks-i386/current for the Intel
> install), then it should do a find on /instmnt, and only if it fails
> to find the desired files should it then tell the user that it can't
> find the desired files. Asking for the manual path to these files
> doesn't seem to be useful at all. If you can't find the files you need
> on the CD with find, then they just aren't there!

because not everyone installs from a standard debian CD image and those
questions are necessary in that context. some people use custom debian
CDs (e.g. with non-free and non-us packages), others just use the boot
floppy or CD to boot the installer and then do an install over the
network.

also, if you've done several dozen installs before and you know what
the path is, typing it in manually is a LOT faster than waiting for the
installer to search the slow CD-ROM filesystem. i've taken advantage of
this convenience feature many times while building systems.


what's your problem with providing that flexibility?  like most things in
the debian installer, the default choice is what most people want so
just hit enter to accept the default.

i really can not understand how anyone could possibly find the debian
installer to be "too difficult". aside from partitioning the disk and
selecting which modules to load, the only thing the user has to do is
read what's on screen and hit enter for the default next step in the
process. it couldn't be simpler - insert the CD and hit enter a couple
of dozen times.

if that's too hard for someone, then perhaps linux is not the right
choice of operating system for them.

craig

--
craig sanders