Re: [gentoo-user] Re: GUI install

[Ben Munat]

I absolutely agree. I never would have gotten Gentoo installed without 
my windows box sitting right next to it with multiple browser tabs open 
to the various gentoo docs. A gui that incorporated the docs and guided 
the user through the decisions to be made would be very helpful. It 
could even keep a log so have a reference of what steps you took. And I 
can't imagine that the gentoo honchos would ever force everyone to use a 
GUI... they can't unless they're also going to abandon the tarball 
stages and net install.

I must also say that I actually wouldn't rate the docs so highly. 
There's a lot of them, but they're kind of a mess: scattered in 
different pages/hierarchies, often not adequately cross-referenced, and 
never, I mean *never*, helpful in anything less than a sunny-day 
scenario. Don't get me wrong; I highly appreciate the work that has gone 
into the docs and making gentoo what it is in general.

Basically, I think that there are probably lots of people who try 
installing gentoo and give up (I know I came very close several times), 
and that's a shame. A *good* interface that guides the user through the 
decisions to be made and explains why they are making them (i.e. 
incorporating the docs) would probably get more people through the 
process with less anxiety, while still learning (nearly) as much.

That's my take on it anyway.

b

Eamon Caddigan wrote:
Hemmann, Volker Armin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

On Friday 02 January 2004 16:37, Mac Intyre, Steven wrote:

Hi all,

Is there possible a GUI install interface for Gentoo - similar to
Mandrake.
no, and I hope, that there will be never one.
genflags/genkernel and the rest of this crap is newbie-friendly and 
non-working enough. A graphic interface would inhibit me, you and everybody 
to install gentoo the way, I, you and everybody wants it.


I don't buy into the rhetoric about GUIs inhibiting power users. First
of all, the command line *is* a graphical user interface, albeit a
one-dimensional one. While it may be true that most other GUIs currently
*do* place unnecessary limitations on the user, it doesn't follow that
they must.
Right now just about every new Gentoo user installs using the command
line on one VC, with the complete install documentation on another VC,
computer, or pile of dead trees on their desk. Heaven help the n00bs if
they're trying to cross reference this with one of the alternate install
docs.
A good GUI could *integrate* Gentoo's (excellent) documentation with the
complete install process. There are plenty of sections of the
installation that could *easily* be automated, and there's nothing about
a GUI that would force us to try automating those that can't.
And if you don't like this theoretical GUI, you should be free to ignore
it. Power users trying something new and different won't have to bother
with it, and wouldn't want to anyway. 

-Eamon

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