Glynn Foster wrote: > > On 14/07/2009, at 6:17 AM, Jean McCormack wrote: > >> >> There are several issues with respect to the addition of software >> selection >> in the installer that need to be addressed. >> >> 1) The user interface >> >> A user should have the option to install different software >> collections (Desktop, AMP, HPC, ... etc.) >> during installation that accompany the default installation. Each >> collection should not include the 'kitchen sink' but be >> representative of a useful and popular selection of software that >> users typically use for that task. >> >> Frank has a screen shot of what he has come up with here: >> http://xdesign.sfbay.sun.com/projects/solaris/subprojects/install/design/screensSlim08-11.html >> >> >> If the number of collection choices is larger than about 6, we may >> have to add a "Software" screen following the Welcome screen. > > The advantage of doing it after the Welcome screen in my mind is that > we would have an opportunity of doing a ping in parallel to see if we > can find an active connection / active publisher to connect to while > the user is filling out the various other screens. One thing that > might be useful (and perhaps this is achieved by back/next), is that > if someone wanted to fix their network connection, we would provide > the user an opportunity of doing so prior to install. > The software selection should be done prior to the Disks screen, currently the second screen, so that size of the selected packages can be used to insure the selected target device has sufficient free space. For various reasons the software selection may be moved from the Welcome screen to a new screen immediately following (and preceeding the Disks screen).The installer initiates the target detection thread immediately after starting, before the Welcome screen is displayed. We'll do the same for software.
In the original installer design, we faced the same time delay issue with respect to locating and analyzing the available target devices. While we could have moved disk selection after date/time/timezone, user, and locale screens I didn't want to have the user fill out a lot of fields only to find that there was an issue with the disks (not plugged in, not found, etc.) If the Software screen results in a long delay we may reconsider the overall screen ordering as you suggest. Frank
