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Yes, of course. But ... I've never understood this fixation with graphic installers, let alone why they are considered so important in assessing the quality of

by Jedd 10y ago

Yes, of course. But ... I've never understood this fixation with graphic installers, let alone why they are considered so important in assessing the quality of a distribution. You install once, and it's fifteen minutes of your life. During installation you need to inform the installer your hostname, domain (maybe), IP address information (maybe), location and timezone, keyboard layout, and disk layout (most people pick the 'sort it out for me' option anyway) ... none of which really benefits from, let alone requires, a mouse. After installation it's all about the maintenance, and that's where Debian shines. Install once, upgrade for the next decade or more. You can use a GUI for management, if you want, though I'm not convinced GUI distro / package management tools are better than the CLI. Perversely colleagues and clients that have chosen to rely on Ubuntu typically end up having to do full re-installs every time a new LTS comes out, as the migration process often simply doesn't work for them.

CJefferson 10y ago
A mouse is useful if you don't know how to tab around boxes. The disk layout option is super-scary for beginners, and full of warnings. I typically don't know what my 'domain' is (I've never known to this day what I should type in that box, and nothing I type ever seems to make any difference).
- Jedd 10y ago
  > A mouse is useful if you don't know how to tab around boxes. I've heard it said that the only intuitive interface is the nipple - after that, everything is learned. Tab (to move) and space or return (to select) is not that hard to get a handle on - and, really, if that's the limiting factor for a computer user that's got their hands on a Debian installation (from 8+ years ago when GUI install wasn't an option) and managed to convince their computer to boot from CDROM / floppy / ZIP disk etc ... they almost definitely have some bigger problems in their near future. > The disk layout option is super-scary for beginners, and full of warnings. Disk layout options are comparable in GUI and text-based installs. Ditto the warnings. I note that in both (and it's always been in the text-based) there's been a 'pick an automatic layout' option. Again, if you're dual-booting, and don't know what you're doing, then a GUI isn't going to be the thing that saves you from snotting your Windows partition during this process. > I typically don't know what my 'domain' is (I've never known to this day what I should type in that box, and nothing I type ever seems to make any difference). Same question is posed in every GNU/Linux distro installation, text or GUI, and in every instance of either that I've seen, the option exists to ignore it. Again, the problem of a fqdn isn't a function of whether you're using a text based installer, or a GUI one.
davidgerard 10y ago
It makes things look friendlier to a user lacking in confidence, and less like "your computer is dying, look it's dropped back to text mode"; makes them less likely to balk, or at the least start their experience with unpleasant feelings. Particularly when doing, e.g., dual boot, i.e. risking your Windows stuff.

by Jedd 10y ago

CJefferson 10y ago

A mouse is useful if you don't know how to tab around boxes. The disk layout option is super-scary for beginners, and full of warnings. I typically don't know what my 'domain' is (I've never known to this day what I should type in that box, and nothing I type ever seems to make any difference).

Jedd 10y ago
> A mouse is useful if you don't know how to tab around boxes. I've heard it said that the only intuitive interface is the nipple - after that, everything is learned. Tab (to move) and space or return (to select) is not that hard to get a handle on - and, really, if that's the limiting factor for a computer user that's got their hands on a Debian installation (from 8+ years ago when GUI install wasn't an option) and managed to convince their computer to boot from CDROM / floppy / ZIP disk etc ... they almost definitely have some bigger problems in their near future. > The disk layout option is super-scary for beginners, and full of warnings. Disk layout options are comparable in GUI and text-based installs. Ditto the warnings. I note that in both (and it's always been in the text-based) there's been a 'pick an automatic layout' option. Again, if you're dual-booting, and don't know what you're doing, then a GUI isn't going to be the thing that saves you from snotting your Windows partition during this process. > I typically don't know what my 'domain' is (I've never known to this day what I should type in that box, and nothing I type ever seems to make any difference). Same question is posed in every GNU/Linux distro installation, text or GUI, and in every instance of either that I've seen, the option exists to ignore it. Again, the problem of a fqdn isn't a function of whether you're using a text based installer, or a GUI one.

davidgerard 10y ago

It makes things look friendlier to a user lacking in confidence, and less like "your computer is dying, look it's dropped back to text mode"; makes them less likely to balk, or at the least start their experience with unpleasant feelings. Particularly when doing, e.g., dual boot, i.e. risking your Windows stuff.