Re: What Window Manager/Desktop Environment do you use, and why?

Marc Haber <mh+usenetspam1118@zugschl.us> wrote:

Lawrence D'Oliveiro <ldo@nz.invalid> wrote:

In other words, the difference in installation defaults is there precisely
to cater to those whom I mentioned above, who don’t realize that you have
configuration options.

 
And this is sending the wrong message.
 
I also blame the media, who set a totally wrong emphasis on the ease
of installation, chastizing distributions for asking questions during
installation, not being aware that this is giving CHOICE to the user¹,
and only test the "default desktop", even calling it "X's desktop".
 
Greetings
Marc
 
¹ the user may be overwhelmed by the amount of questions an installer
asks, but alas, this is rocket science, isn't it?

That is easy enough to avoid.  Start with a question of:

   Do you want to configure many details of your setup, or would you
   prefer to accept all defaults?

   [Custom Configuration]

   [Accept All Defaults]

Which gives the additional "choice" of being able to choose "I just
want it installed with no fuss" for those that want that vs. "I do want
to adjust most knobs" for the others who do want to tweak the knobs to
their liking.

Of course, it is harder on the packagers to then support the "custom
config" path, because they now have to actually build out all those
configuration questions and UI's to obtain the answers.


The above is quite like Slackware's installer.  Up front, just as one
gets started one is asked, essentially:

   [Just install everything, ask me no questions]

   [Ask me if I want groups of stuff installed]

   [Ask me for each individual item if I want it installed or not]