From owner-freebsd-chat Thu Feb 6 11:34:49 2003 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92EB237B401 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2003 11:34:46 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtpout.mac.com (smtpout.mac.com [17.250.248.86]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 07C5F43FA3 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2003 11:34:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from lomion@mac.com) Received: from asmtp02.mac.com (asmtp02-qfe3 [10.13.10.66]) by smtpout.mac.com (Xserve/MantshX 2.0) with ESMTP id h16JYj9J024886 for ; Thu, 6 Feb 2003 11:34:45 -0800 (PST) Received: from mac.com ([67.98.154.9]) by asmtp02.mac.com (Netscape Messaging Server 4.15) with ESMTP id H9WJPX00.K3K; Thu, 6 Feb 2003 11:34:45 -0800 Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 14:34:36 -0500 Subject: Re: BSD desktop (was: GGI (was: Project Status)) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=fixed Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v551) Cc: Narvi , freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG To: "Jeremy C. Reed" From: Larry Sica In-Reply-To: Message-Id: <064CB153-3A0A-11D7-B89B-000393A335A2@mac.com> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Pgp-Rfc2646-Fix: 1 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.551) Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Thursday, February 6, 2003, at 12:59 PM, Jeremy C. Reed wrote: > On Thu, 6 Feb 2003, Narvi wrote: > g list archives; a few others have started projects, > websites, and discussions for doing this for a few years. (Search for > homebsd and zebsd, for example.) > >> * *DECIDE* (and later keep to the decision) as to what exactly >> your target audience is > > My wife. My mom. My sister-in-law. :) > > (My wife already uses X, blackbox, vnc, and sylpheed. My mom's been > using > open source Unix for several years for everything. And my in-laws have > been unknowingly and entirely using NetBSD for a year.) > >> * and then you just deal with the needed decisions that come >> from >> the first two parts to end up with a desktop package > > The software is already available. The packages/ports are done. > What is needed is a good interface to it, both aesthetically, and technically as well as a stable method. >> But really its a huge amount of work and includes many quite quirky >> decisions even when starting for a well-known base like GNOME/KDE >> (alphabetical ordering). > > It is not a lot of work (unless done by one person). I think it only > needs > a few things: > > 1) Nice-looking GUI installer. But it can be very simple: don't give > the > user very many choices. (If they want choices, let it fall back to > sysinstall.) For example, no fdisk slicing or disklabeling. Just tell > the user that it will be installed on entire disk. Or tell the user > that > certain partitions are available and ask which to use. > > Don't ask the user (during install) to choose software. Just install! > Yes I agree here, the base os shouldn't need 100000 options on install. Ideally it should just install everything for you, setting up disks and only asking for your personal information. > Do ask the user for username, password and for a password for doing > "administration tasks". ("Some computer tasks will require an > additional > administrator password. Please enter ...") > One could take a nod from apple here. It only asks for a password if you tell it you want to be asked for login, and will then ask for administrative tasks. It presents setting this up in a very friendly way as well. > 2) Make sure all menus are clearly preset. > > The software to install should be decided, but not too many options. > Then make sure it works correctly, such as double-clicking on a mpeg > should play it. > Install the basics, if someone really wants more they can install it later. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0 (Build 349) Beta iQA/AwUBPkK40OeV8VtPCL3dEQJVhwCg6H1SNBqA3mp66ST/HdepAau+0foAn3Eo hM35WEHSgrPEnbX1G7fIMR6p =EBea -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message