Ubuntu 10.10's installer looks rather nice

[Evan Dandrea]

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 6:56 PM, Jeff Spaleta <jspaleta at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 9:18 AM, Evan Dandrea <ev at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>> I'm not challenging your point that the Fedora installer offers more complex
>> options.  I just wanted to clarify our approach, as our users are not screwed
>> in these circumstances, we just clearly separate their use cases to different
>> CDs.
>
>
> We struggle a lot with how to position multiple image targets
> effectively to appease both our existing vocal contributorbase and
> simutenously provide something that appeals to the
> yet-to-be-initiated.  The default Fedora desktop livecd is meant to be
> the installer image for the "go with the defaults." novice user  It's
> not clear to me that we need the traditional installer experience (ie
> non-live) that hides more than it already does. I'm not really sure
> we've identified a usage case for such a thing that shouldn't already
> be a target for the live image installer.
>
> One question for you. Do you have a process by which people coming to
> your web properties can attempt to self-select which install image
> they want before downloading one? Do you chart a course to guide users
> to make a decision on whether to download the alternative image before
> first attempting to use the streamlined live image? Or do users tend
> to reach for the alternative image only after they bump up against
> customization constraints in the live installer you provide?

Sure.  Guiding the users to the correct CD for their particular use
case is not an area of my expertise - that's the job of our design and
marketing teams; however, I'll try to answer your question to the best
of my ability.

You can follow the path to the different desktop CDs from here:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

The alternate CD can be found under the alternative downloads link,
with an explanation that it "is suited for computers unable to run the
graphical desktop based installation, either because their computer
does not meet the minimum requirements for the live cd or because
their computer requires configuration after the installation is
complete in order to use the desktop."

So I believe that we assume that users will fall into your
last-mentioned path: they will bump up against the customization
constraints of the live CD installer, search for a solution, and find
their way to the alternate CD.

We include the alternate installer on our live DVD image, but getting
to it is not obvious.  A splash screen briefly appears with a keyboard
icon in the bottom-center of the screen at boot.  If you press a key,
then the following menu appears ("text mode" is the alternate
installer):

http://blog.keesmeijs.nl/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/cryptobuntu_boot.png

I realize that I have rudely not introduced myself, so do excuse my
belated attempt.  If it was not already clear, I am the maintainer of
ubiquity, Ubuntu's desktop CD installer.