I'm not sure if I like this proposal -- I believe splitting things up into small steps makes it easier on the user. For one thing, the first questions we ask are the language and the keyboard layout, which are essential to the user's understanding of the rest of the installer. Many users won't set their language at the CD bootloader because there's a timeout on it anyway. By making it all one step, non-English speakers may have trouble figuring out how to change the language, for one thing. Also, having side-effects like having the keyboard layout change depending on the selected language, in one screen of the dialog, may be confusing and unfriendly.
In addition, I believe dropdowns for long lists such as languages should be avoided -- they're less intuitive to scroll through, and more transitory. Selecting the language for your operating system is a BIG step -- and deserves a screen to itself, with appropriate widgets, and setting the language first on its own screen will create a more seamless transition to the installer in the language of the user's choice. The other problem is that partitioning is an inherently confusing operation for most users. By having a screen dedicated to it with visual cues like the ones we have already, such as showing a bar chart with amounts of space allocated to different operating systems, a user who may not know what exactly a partition is will come to an understanding of what it means. Splitting the installer into several steps leads to a less overwhelming first impression of the installer. 2009/12/1 Ryan Dwyer <ryandwy...@gmail.com> > I'm picturing a single dialog with an overview of the current values and > options to change them. The fields I've marked as buttons would have the > current value as the button text so the user only has to click the value to > change it. > > Language: [English (US)] (this would be a droplist) > Location: [New York, United States] (this would be a button that opens the > map) > Keyboard: [USA] (droplist) > Partition: [Use unpartitioned space (120GB)] (button which opens advanced > partitioning dialog) > User details: [Not yet provided] (button to open dialog for full name, > username and password) > [_] Log in automatically (that's a checkbox) > [_] Encrypt home directory > Computer name: [Not yet provided] (button to open dialog) > > [Quit] [Install] > > Default for language is determined by what they chose after entering the > CD. > Default for location can be determined by IP geolocation if they are set up > with local DHCP and have internet access. > Default for keyboard can be USA. > Default for partition can be determined based on whether another OS exists, > size of unallocated partitions and whether there are any completely empty > partitions. "Not yet provided" if the user needs to manually choose a > partition to erase. > No default for user details. > Default for log in automatically: Unchecked. > Default for encrypt home directory: Unchecked. > No default for computer name. > > The button text for user details could change to something like [Fred Smith > (fredsmith)] after the user has entered their info. > > This would make it faster to install as you can skip sections that already > have correct defaults. It also gives the user an immediate overview of what > needs to be configured. > > And the concept of having the installer automatically determine where you > are is completely awesome. If the service is hosted by Canonical it may give > a clue as to how many installations are being done. > > -Ryan > > On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 7:13 PM, Mohammed Bassit <webceo...@gmail.com>wrote: > >> On Mon, 2009-11-30 at 21:54 -0400, Derek Broughton wrote: >> > James Westby wrote: >> > >> > > On Mon Nov 30 13:47:34 -0500 2009 John Moser wrote: >> > >> List some not-silly reasons. >> > > >> > > You're serious? Ok. >> > > >> > > * Takes a long time to crack any password that's not in the >> dictionary >> > > and >> > > more than a few characters long. >> > > * Rainbow tables would be too large to fit on the CD. >> > >> > Actually, that's probably the best reason right there. >> > >> > -- >> > derek >> > >> > >> >> Can anyone tell me why nobody actually cares about what Conrad Knauer >> was talking about in the first place ? >> >> How in **** did a discussion about making the Ubuntu installer look >> simpler, become a debate about whether some password or network security >> mechanism (or whatever) is crackable or not ? >> >> Focus people, any real thoughts about simplifying the Installer ? >> >> For me the Ubuntu install process doesn't get any easier, but I have to >> agree that it still LOOKS (as in what you see, not what you actually >> get) a bit complicated. And I also agree that hiding some of the >> options, people usually don't change, can help. >> >> Any thoughts ? >> >> >> P.S: no rumble about cracking password or I'll send the tooth fairy to >> hunt you down :) >> >> >> >> -- >> Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list >> Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com >> Modify settings or unsubscribe at: >> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss >> > > > -- > Ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list > Ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com > Modify settings or unsubscribe at: > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-discuss > >
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