Re: Desktop task(sel) in Etch? (Bug #389092)
On 9/26/06, Christoph Haas <haas@debian.org> wrote:
Hi, devs...
I have tried the new Etch installer last weekend and I'm impressed. The
installation works perfectly well and the graphical installer - while it
doesn't add much value IMHO to the dialog based installer - looks nice and
will surely be liked by many users. Kudos to the installer team.
I chose to install the "Desktop" task when tasksel asked me. And I ended up
with a Gnome desktop. Since Gnome is not really my favorite desktop
manager I deinstalled Gnome (probably leaving a lot of Gnome cruft on the
system) and installed KDE through apt-get. I wondered why Debian installed
Gnome as a default and does not even offer the choice between - say -
Xfce, Gnome and KDE during the installation. I just didn't expect Gnome.
Sarge at least installed Gnome and KDE which appears to be a waste of
resources but at least gives users the choice later when logging in.
There's desktop, gnome-desktop and kde-desktop tasks, xfce-desktop
task is coming.
Some people on #debian-boot argued that it might be a problem with
preseeding.
No it wasn't.
Joey Hess argued that users may not know what KDE and Gnome are and just
expect a working desktop. Opinions on
http://kitenet.net/~joey/code/tasksel/faq.html
I agree with Joey.
I know that tasksel tries to keep things simple. But I want to question the
way the desktop installation is handled. So I'd like to hear a few
opinions on how happy other people are with that choice.
Currently the way to install KDE is to provide the
option "tasksel/first=kde-desktop" when booting the Etch installer CD. No
user will guess that.
It'll be possible use 'tasks=kde-desktop' in d-i etch rc1, as i've
discussed previously with joeyh.
What I would expect at least:
Rename the task from "Desktop" to "Desktop (Gnome)" so more experienced
users know what's coming up.
I think it could be done in 'expert' mode, but not in the normal
installation mode. The next step will be that somebody else will
suggest "Desktop (KDE)" listed too (in normal mode).
What I would prefer:
Tasks for Gnome, KDE and optionally Xfce (for the less resource-fortunate).
See above :-)
Ubuntu uses Gnome because they package just one part of Debian to create a
specialized preconfigured desktop. But the Debian user should get the
freedom to choose. And that begins with the installer. Doesn't it?
FYI, Ubuntu now uses tasks too.
regards,
-- stratus
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