Re: Just a Proposition....:-)))
servo@southeast.net wrote:
>On Mon, 6 Jan 1997 jacek@netcologne.de wrote:
>> installation...:-)) I think installing and upgrading under X by just
>> using the mouse pointer should be possible...and BTW other so called OS
>Well, instead of X... something like SVGALib would be better... because
>its less to install than X. But.. like my machine i'm typing away on now,
Well, I think there are too many systems where SVGAlib is not an option (or
at least not a good one) either. My primary system, for example, has a fixed
frequency monitor that works in X and text mode (because I can configure the
slightly non-standard mode it requires with XF86Config and SVGATextMode),
but not SVGAlib (unless its mode setup is as flexible as X nowadays).
While that may be a rather rare example (and I do have a slightly broken VGA
monitor as a `backup', for changing CMOS settings and such, though it's a
pain to change monitors), I wouldn't be surprised to hear of people using
Debian with MDA/Hercules/CGA/EGA monitors or even no monitor at all (network
servers, configuration via a serial port or the network interface). And I
think it's even more common (especially for network servers) not to have a
mouse.
I think something as important as package installation should be as
platform-independent as possible. Or we could do it the way the Linux kernel
does it and have multiple interfaces...
But, frankly, I think a text-mode interface is good enough. Dselect is a bit
confusing now (or I thought so when I first installed Debian 1.1 a few
months ago, though now I've got used to it), but I think it can be improved
while keeping it in text mode. I think graphics and pretty pictures wouldn't
make it easier to use.
As for possible improvements, maybe you could have a package installation
system `even easier than dselect', i.e. where you could select more generic
things (`no X' / `X with a minimal amount of apps' / `X with most apps' / `X
with everything', and so on). It should probably also have an `override'
option where you could select the invidual packages (I think the current
dselect would be good enough for this, though maybe a help page for `most
commonly used keys' or something would be a good thing to add).
Something else that I thought of: Maybe we could have a stripped-down
version of dselect for first-time installations (as opposed to upgrading),
so that first-time users wouldn't be confused by the multitude of options
related to upgrading (e.g. the difference between _ and - to deselect
packages). This could also save boot disk space (if the stripped-down
dselect was a separate binary, and the installation procedure would install
the full dselect later), though probably not by much.
Just some ideas...
--
-=- Rjs -=- rjs@spider.compart.fi, rjs@lloke.dna.fi
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- / I took the one less traveled by, /
And that has made all the difference." -- Robert Frost, `The Road Not Taken'
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