Re: Future of Debian uncertain?
On Wed, Feb 26, 2003 at 11:08:18PM -0800, Joshua Kwan wrote:
> When they ask for help, they often are told to RTFM to fix the problem
> (not that it isn't a solution) and basically read up all the manpages
> that a systems administrator would read, in order to fix his or her
> problem. But all they want to do is enjoy a truly free OS and probably
> do whatever it is they used to do with whatever distribution they used
> previously, or perhaps whatever non-free OS they used previously :). No
> hassles. Is it too much to ask?
It is MUCH to ask. I don't know if it is TOO much to ask but I suspect it
is. Especially catering for former users of the
most-popular-pc-system-that-should-not-be-named is much much work. have you
ever seen how commercial development of off-the-shelf software look like?
Writing the core fuctionality is the least part, the worst is to make the
UI to allow average user take care of the functionality.
> Anyway, I believe a user-friendly initial setup is very effective. The
> beautiful thing is that Debian's underlying framework makes it very easy
> for people who grow tired of this initial setup to start experimenting
> with more 'daring' stuff (relative to how easy it's been before for
> thm.)
>
> Of course, I recognize that a lot of this is due to be fixed in the new
> debian-installer. But I hope this gives the d-i team a slightly clearer
> view of what end users are experiencing with Debian as of woody.
The real problem isn't with the approach in the installer. The installer can
ease the initial pain with the installation but won't change the later
overall experience of the system. Which we can't change now nor I think we
should aim to (as the whole project).
Personally, I could use a better installer, too ;-)
Alex
Reply to: