boot.fedoraproject.org

[Máirín Duffy]

On Wed, 2010-02-10 at 17:42 -0500, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> On Thu, Feb 04, 2010 at 06:59:21PM -0500, Máirín Duffy wrote:
> > On Thu, 2010-02-04 at 16:17 +0100, Adam Pribyl wrote:
> > > Well I've read the FAQ twice, but it is not obvious to me what this is. Do 
> > > I understand correctly this is CD that downloads at the beginning the menu 
> > > from net and then starts the usuall network install of selected system? Or 
> > > does the menu entries start the pxeboot that loads an installation 
> > > system from network as usuall pxe system boot? (Also it is not very 
> > > obvious what to do with bfo.usb image..)
> > 
> > Yep I think that's about what it does. Okay.
> > 
> > So let's think about this for a sec:
> > 
> > - When we have users pick what arch / other flavor of Fedora they want
> > from the website, it makes them have to sift through more choices but
> > there's supporting material right there.
> 
> Just to make sure I understand what you wrote here... Do you mean
> that, a user is sifting throught those choices on the "more choices"
> page in get.fp.o, and therefore it's natural that a choice for the
> boot.fp.o images be there too?  I'm not questioning that, just want to
> make sure I understand what you wrote.
> 

No, what I'm trying to say is that boot.fpo has choices of Fedoras to
install, and www.fpo has choices of Fedoras to install. We're
duplicating the functionality of www.fpo in the actual boot image.

So here's where it gets weird:

- I go to get.fpo and there's all these different Fedoras to download.
Wow, how do I make a decision?

- I decide to go with boot.fpo, for whatever reason. It asks me to
decide which Fedora to install from all these choices....

- So many choices, I'm overwhelmed. 

I don't think boot.fpo is going to be a good option for regular users.
They're going to want more support to help them decide what choice to
make than I think boot.fpo can give them. I think (please correct me if
I'm wrong) is a great tool for experienced, technical folks who do a lot
of installs and want one versatile image they can use to install
whatever kind of Fedora they need to install.

However, I think the users we're trying to reach out to and support with
get.fpo are those folks who only have one computer to worry about - not
the type of folks to install an entire lab of machines or the kind of
folks who need a versatile swiss-army-knife boot image.

Therefore, I don't think the boot.fpo image necessarily belongs on
get.fpo. Within the framework of the recent design mockups, it could go
under the 'formats' tab, but those haven't been implemented yet. I worry
in that case though, too, that its usage is specialized enough that it
might cause confusion for folks who know enough to know the arch of
their system but don't necessarily have any use for boot.fpo.

But I may be misassessing the situation.

> > - If the users download the boot.fpo image and use that, we're shifting
> > that choice from the website to the boot.fpo image's menus. If I wanted
> > to install the x86 version of Fedora 12, how would i do that from here?
> 
> After you boot the boot.fp.o ISO image, you can choose architecture
> and release from the menu under the "Install" option.

That's what I suspected. It's like get.fpo > more options inside the
boot image.

~m