Ubuntu 10.10's installer looks rather nice

[Dennis Jacobfeuerborn]

On 10/12/2010 05:13 PM, Chuck Anderson wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 08:06:59AM -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> Hash: SHA1
>>
>> On 10/12/10 7:20 AM, Matthew Miller wrote:
>>> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 02:16:49PM +0200, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn wrote:
>>>> The only way to accomplish this without actually removing the features is
>>>> to have two anaconda modes one for easy desktop installation and one full
>>>> featured mode. This mode should be chosen not by the user but by the spin
>>>> e.g. the desktop spin would use the easy mode and the server or workstation
>>>> spins would use the full featured one.
>>>
>>> Anaconda actually has the ability to do this with "install classes".
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Anaconda used to have an Advanced mode where things like the complex
>> partitioning and package selection were hidden.  Turns out, the vast
>> majority of people who used anaconda and said something about it had
>> picked advanced mode, because they felt their case was special.  If
>> everybody uses advanced mode, that becomes the norm...
>
> Making "advanced" only a choice at the beginning of a 10 step process
> is a non-starter and leads to the problem you describe above.  If
> instead there were "Advanced Options..." in each step along the way
> that could be opened/closed at will, that would allow users to explore
> the advanced options without worrying that they made the "wrong
> choice" way back at the beginning of the 10 step process, whether or
> not they actually end up using the advanced options.

This assumes that the workflow for both methods is always the same which is 
pretty limiting. Maybe for the simple installation you don't want a storage 
configuration screen at all and simply put up an option to overwrite the hd 
completely or install next to an already present os. Perhaps you can even 
put this on the screen where the user enters his name since this selection 
doesn't really warrant its own screen at all.

Regards,
   Dennis