Improving the Fedora boot experience

[Björn Persson]

Ryan Lerch wrote:
> With regards to a label on the screen instructing the user how to show 
> the hidden preboot menu (GRUB), It is clutter that is not needed. It 
> makes boot up longer, as that screen will need to appear on the screen 
> long enough for the user to read, at which point why not just display 
> the preboot menu?

Yes, why not display the Grub menu?

Whether any text is displayed or not, there still needs to be a long
enough pause that the user has time to press a key. Not displaying any
text at all would make it harder to understand that the time to press
that key is now. Many people won't even understand that they have an
opportunity to press a key.

If the menu is displayed, it takes only a few seconds to understand
that there is a choice and a countdown, and hopefully most people will
quickly discover that pressing a key stops the countdown. Thus five
seconds is a long enough pause.

If some text like "Press Esc now to choose which operating system to
boot." would be displayed, then the pause would need to be long enough
for the user to read and understand the instruction and then reach for
the right key – and the terser the text is made the harder it will be to
understand. I estimate that at least 15 seconds would be needed. Adding
"Press Enter to save a few seconds." would make it even more text to
read and understand.

Björn Persson
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