[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >On Mon, 6 Jan 1997 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> installation...:-)) I think installing and upgrading under X by just >> using the mouse pointer should be possible...and BTW other so called OS >Well, instead of X... something like SVGALib would be better... because >its less to install than X. But.. like my machine i'm typing away on now,
Well, I think there are too many systems where SVGAlib is not an option (or at least not a good one) either. My primary system, for example, has a fixed frequency monitor that works in X and text mode (because I can configure the slightly non-standard mode it requires with XF86Config and SVGATextMode), but not SVGAlib (unless its mode setup is as flexible as X nowadays). While that may be a rather rare example (and I do have a slightly broken VGA monitor as a `backup', for changing CMOS settings and such, though it's a pain to change monitors), I wouldn't be surprised to hear of people using Debian with MDA/Hercules/CGA/EGA monitors or even no monitor at all (network servers, configuration via a serial port or the network interface). And I think it's even more common (especially for network servers) not to have a mouse. I think something as important as package installation should be as platform-independent as possible. Or we could do it the way the Linux kernel does it and have multiple interfaces... But, frankly, I think a text-mode interface is good enough. Dselect is a bit confusing now (or I thought so when I first installed Debian 1.1 a few months ago, though now I've got used to it), but I think it can be improved while keeping it in text mode. I think graphics and pretty pictures wouldn't make it easier to use. As for possible improvements, maybe you could have a package installation system `even easier than dselect', i.e. where you could select more generic things (`no X' / `X with a minimal amount of apps' / `X with most apps' / `X with everything', and so on). It should probably also have an `override' option where you could select the invidual packages (I think the current dselect would be good enough for this, though maybe a help page for `most commonly used keys' or something would be a good thing to add). Something else that I thought of: Maybe we could have a stripped-down version of dselect for first-time installations (as opposed to upgrading), so that first-time users wouldn't be confused by the multitude of options related to upgrading (e.g. the difference between _ and - to deselect packages). This could also save boot disk space (if the stripped-down dselect was a separate binary, and the installation procedure would install the full dselect later), though probably not by much. Just some ideas... -- -=- Rjs -=- [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference." -- Robert Frost, `The Road Not Taken' -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]