I understand your desire to be precise in your document. Precision is good.
And don't let my concerns here sound like I'm urging unnecessary imprecision!
When I started reading the solaris doc set, I found the term "initial
installation" (wihch is used a lot there) to be a bit puzzling... it was
calling something "initial installation" which to me was just "installation".
the presence of that extra word, "initial" made it sound more mysterious
(adding to that aura of solaris-is-scary that people report :-). I kept
feeling "why do I need this common case (doing a fresh install of the OS) to
have a special name?"
I think I understant that it is being used to distinguish a from-scratch
installation from an update installation or an upgrade installation or a
differential flash archive installation or some other kind of installation. At
the same time, on page 18 of the white paper, it seems to me that point 15
means "initial installation" even though it only says "installation" while I'm
not sure why 9 only applies to "initial installation". Is that intended?
In practice, programs that people colloquially call "installers" are used to do
repairs and are used to add features ("I'd installed the base system, and then
decided to run the installer to add the language kits later" and "i installed
the upgrade today"). So, I don't deny that the terminology does get muddy.
Maybe all that is needed is a glossary.
This message posted from opensolaris.org
