[Design-team] Fedora GRUB2 boot menu, from design perspective

[Máirín Duffy]

Hi Kirk! I'm really happy to see you around here again :)

On 2012-06-20 11:03, Kirk Bridger wrote:
>  I'm not an expert user but I don't think I'm novice either.  I don't
> see why we need to HIDE the older versions behind another menu, just
> perhaps make it more clear that the old versions are still functional
> but are not the latest on the machine.

Martin made a pretty compelling case as to why putting all the kernel 
versions in the main menu is a bad idea.
>
>  Novice users have the "out" of saying "I don't know what this all
> means but I know I want to launch the most current version".  And if
> they're dropped back here after a failure or two trying the current
> version they can try the older versions.

If novice users are dropped back to the bootloader after a crash, they 
can go to the submenu labeled 'Troubleshooting' where (it at least was 
intended, I don't remember how it actually went out) older kernels are 
available. We definitely have to revisit this for F18 and kudos to Elad 
for bringing it up.

>  This all assumes that we're limited to the current console-style
> menu.  If we can use HTML/CSS or some other layout and styling we can
> make this info much more parse-able with styling and different font
> sizes/layout.  If we can do more than just console can someone send a
> screenshot of what we can do, and maybe we can mock something up?

We are very limited in the bootloader environment. We're not in a full 
OS, don't have full access to the GFX card or any of the niceities of a 
full desktop environment. I don't know if it's possible to write 
something that would operate off of HTML and CSS but that is certainly 
less-than-trivial.

This is the theme I wrote up for F17 that was dropped at the last 
minute because of QA concerns:
http://blog.linuxgrrl.com/2012/05/09/grub-2-theme-for-fedora-17/

>
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>  Welcome to Fedora 17 (BeefyMiracle)
>
>  CURRENT VERSIONS
>  Fedora 17 (kernel-3.6.0-1.fc17)
>
>  Superceded Versions
>  Fedora 17 (kernel-3.5.20-3.fc17)
>  Fedora 17 (kernel-3.5.20-2.fc17)
>  Fedora 16 (kernel-3.2.10-4.fc16)
>
>  OTHER OPERATING SYSTEMS
>  Microsoft Windows 7
>  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>  Happy to hear thoughts on this approach.
>
Maybe if the user installs a new kernel, the first time they reboot, 
only the new kernel and the last known working kernel are shown, all 
older ones archived behind a submenu.

The issue I have with the above mockup, which looks nice in the case 
for which you designed it, is that Fedora overwhelms the menu and for a 
user who is playing with Fedora on the side and who has to use Windows 
or OS X as their primary OS (e.g., for work it's a requirement), it's a 
bit of a real estate hog.

~m