A couple suggestions to improve debian installation (long)
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Disclaimer: This is not a flame. I am NOT trying to say that someone is doing
it all wrong. I appreciate the work you all put into this system. It sure shows
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Why are there so many Slackware users ?
Probably because the installation looks very cool and the installation is easy.
Even if you don't know everything about Unix, you can still install Slackware.
But that doesn't mean that Slackware is better that Debian (Quite the opposite
as we all know).
So to make Debian a little more populair, the installation procedure should
be a little easier and better looking. The configuration of the system and
the configuration of some packages could also be improved at some points.
To improve Debian here are some suggestions I wrote down while I was installing
my first Debian system yesterday (I used custom mode):
The first impression I had when I inserted my root and boot disks were good.
Nice colors, easy to use menu, some help at the top; very nice.
But when it was time to (re)partition my harddisk, we were back in the
stoneage; no colors, no message giving some advice....
Next I had to enter what device was going to be my swappartition and what
would be my rootpartition. First of all, a clear explanation of what a
swap/root-partition is won't hurd anybody. Second, if there is only one swap
partition, that partition is probably going to be the swapdevice, so that
device should be the default and a <enter> should be enough. The same goes
for the other partitions, an easy selection will decrease the possibility
of errors and increase the popularity of Debian. This is probably
different/better in novice mode, but that mode gives less freedom.
I have only one word for the automatic CD-Rom drive selection : GREAT!!!
The hostname entry was again in back and white. I'm sure this could be done
a little better.
The up-arrow key at the top-most menu entry should jump to the last menu entry
and a down-arrow key at the last menu entry should jump to the first entry.
(This is just a matter of taste, feel free to disagree on this one.)
Then it was time to reboot my system and begin with the real installation.
Dselect needs some getting used to, but it is not so bad afterall. It gives me
a lot more freedom than the slackware installation.
I may have found a bug, and I will report this bug to debian-bugs when I have
some time to track it down. I was reading the explanation of `inewsinn' and
pressed the right-arrow key. A blue bar appeared just after the explanation
of inewsinn. Nothing earthshocking so I will report this bug officially when
I have a better description of this bug. (dselect version 10.5)
I noticed that there wasn't an option to configure /dev/mouse and /dev/modem.
I think it is very usefull to have these two symbolic links. That way switching
my modem to an other serial port is a lot easier.
Timezone configuration works good, easy to use and very clear.
I was impressed by the fact that Debian noticed I had not installed vi but did
install vim, and automaticly created a symbolic link. GREAT!
in /etc/X11/XFconfig:
a comment refers to `/usr/X11R6/lib/doc/README.S3'
but that should be `/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/README.S3'
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Note that I have been a Unix user for more than three years so this
installation was trivial for me. I only wrote the above list down to help
improve Debian and make it more accessible to the first-time user.
The reasons I choose Debian:
There is a different maintainer for each packages (well, not really true, some
of you just can't get enough of it) instead of one person who is desperately
trying to keep the system from falling apart. This means less bugs and a system
that is up to date.
I can upgrade individual packages instead of ftp-ing a whole distribution.
A good bug-report system. Instead of all the newbies posting their problems
on comp.os.linux.* (preferably cross-posted to all groups) with only some
`me too'-follow ups, there is a system with the sole purpose of reporting and
solving bugs.
To end this rather long post with a quote of Linus:
World domination, fast!
Jeroen van der Most
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