user feedback during (un)installation

[Sven Mueller <debian@incase.de>]

Kim Lundgren wrote on 01/04/2005 00:16:
> > > > Leave the deletion of obsolete users up to the system administrator, do
> > > > not do so on purge.
> > >
> > > What about small daemons that don't generate any files and don't require
> > > anything apart from what's in the package?
> >
> > In general, you cannot assume that the administator doesn't use the user
> > for other stuff too, related (or not) to the package. An extra user
> > entry really doesn't hurt anything, so can safely be left.
>
> This peaked my interest :).  Wouldn't it be an alternative to prompt the
> administrator about removing the user, and displaying a clear warning
> regarding potential files left behind?

ARG, nooooo, please don't do that.

Installations with debian packages are far too verbose already for my 
taste. Please don't bother the admin (me) with questions at uninstall 
time as well. I hate giving an (un)install command, only to come back a 
few hours later to see that it waits for my input approx. 10% through 
the process.

Actually, with (network) installs, this is even worse:
When installing the system (sarge, with current debian-installer in 
expert mode), you often get the situation where you answer a (few) 
question(s), wait for more questions to come up but only see it 
downloading more software, so you leave the host alone to for a while (a 
few hours possibly), only to come back, seeing it waiting for you to 
answer another few questions, you do that again only see it doing more 
downloads, .....

The debian installation improved quite a bit over the last two years, 
but it is still faaaaar away from where I would like to see it:
- Boot CD/DVD
- Answer a few questions (e.g. partioning, boot loader type, packages
  selection, language, keyboard type, network setup, mirror selection)
- Wait for all packages to be downloaded and unpacked (*)
- Answer all the questions those packages might want answers to
- Have a running system

* This is the most important point: We can't avoid a wait here, since we 
need time to partition the disk, download/unpack packages etc., but 
there shouldn't be multiple prolonged waiting periods during an 
installation.

cu,
sven