Hi Jose, On April 4, 2003 01:17 am, Jose Gonzalez Gomez wrote: [snipped] > So what's the problem with this? "Power users" could still do things > the way they like it, and Gentoo could gain mass adoption from people > (ok, idiot people, sorry again) that doesn't want to mess up with > compilers, boot managers and modprobing. I don't see this as making > Gentoo a clone of RedHat. I see this as imporving Gentoo and making it > something much better than RedHat. > > And don't forget that I love Gentoo the way it is right now, just I > think that a graphical installer would be a great thing for Gentoo to > gain mass adoption, that's all.
I don't see any problem with what you are saying Jose. Indeed I think it would be great to have a nice graphical installer for those who want to use it. I could be way off in my impressions so take what I am about to say with a grain of salt ya all but I think there is some resistance to this among the Gentoo community... In part I have had the impression from one signature saying used on the Gentoo forum by someone very experienced in Gentoo and interactions on the forum that if too many newbies come into Gentoo as a result of making things easier (such as a GUI installer would) that the Gentoo forums will be flooded with newbie questions and expectations. It seems that there is some concern about this. And a predisposition to not make Gentoo installation and use too easy. The hard time some have installing Gentoo is considered a very valuable learning experience to go through and thus there is again no real motivation to work on a GUI installer and/or to see a real need for one. This all ties into a lot of Gentoo users also wanting to keep Gentoo a "power users" distribution. A lot of gurus that use Gentoo are able to get around the quirks and problems with it. When they hear about the struggles of others that might be diminished through a graphical installer they might have a hard time sympathising or being very motivated to pitch in to help create a GUI installer. Because Gentoo is supposed to be for "power users" who know what they are doing. And not for the masses. Many times when I have talked of problems encountered by someone new to Gentoo (on the forum) and how things like a GUI installer would help, along with more newbiesized documentation, I have received responses of the kind that "it worked for me" leaving me with the impression that the problem was really with me and not so much with Gentoo. So I think bringing in something like a GUI installer is to swim upstream from the way many in the community see Gentoo or would want to keep it. Don't get me wrong Jose. There are very many and very helpful people in the community and I am very thankful for that but my impressions have been formed from a lot of forum conversations I have had with many and I think there is some element of truth in what I am saying. One nice thing about Gentoo though is that regardless of what some think or do not think about a GUI installer and other such things, we are free to start creating one if we wish. There is certainly nothing keeping that from happening. If there is enough interest. Carlos www.internetsuccess.ca -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
