Date: Tue, 21 May 2024 14:45:59 +0000 From: bugzilla-noreply@freebsd.org To: bugs@FreeBSD.org Subject: [Bug 279174] POLA violation: Graphical Installer for a natively text UI OS Message-ID: <bug-279174-227-JDluUcrV4m@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/> In-Reply-To: <bug-279174-227@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/> References: <bug-279174-227@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/>
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https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3D279174 Pierre Pronchery <khorben@defora.org> changed: What |Removed |Added ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CC| |khorben@defora.org --- Comment #3 from Pierre Pronchery <khorben@defora.org> --- Hi Alexander, (all) [I understand that this is not the place for a discussion - we can take it privately from there - but I think some aspects deserve more clarity] First, thank you for your interest, and for the praise; much appreciated. While I totally agree with your evaluation of FreeBSD, I also believe that = it can grow to be more than a text-based Operating System, and that graphical interfaces can be useful to many less tech-savvy users even while setting u= p a server. I have witnessed this myself, and this is also the reason behind projects like TrueNAS, PC-BSD, GhostBSD, or MidnightBSD for instance. With this in mind, this new graphical version of the installer does not rep= lace the existing one. It adds a new possibility, by means of an additional installation image. It is only available there, and even then it still star= ts the text-based installer on the first VT as usual. This actually works as a failover mechanism if the graphical installer fails to start. In fact the current design of the graphical installer re-uses the code of t= he traditional text-based installer. This is an intentional decision on my par= t, which allows both implementations to improve each other in most situations:= a fix in the graphical installer automatically applies to the other one, and = vice versa. Win win :) Ed wrote a bit too fast, as by now almost every part is ready and pending review in Phabricator. However overall it is not an easy thing to just appr= ove and push, as it adds weight to releases (currently 8 GB on amd64), flirts w= ith what is acceptable in base (e.g., downloading ports to generate an image) a= nd will probably require documentation updates as well. So this will still take time and broader approval before making it to a future release. Knowing this, I took it upon myself to travel to AsiaBSDCon and communicate about this project at the DevSummit and at the conference, and I also inten= d to present it to a broader group of FreeBSD developers next week during BSDCan. I would like to conclude by mentioning two related initiatives: Alfonso Siciliano, the author of bsddialog, is working on an additional installation step which would drop a graphical interface after installation if so desire= d - thus fixing the POLA violation - while a GSoC student, Leaf Yen, is working= on extending the installation media for upgrading or repairing existing installations. I am very much looking forward to the first official release of such commercial-grade installation media for FreeBSD :) Anyhow hoping this clarifies, -- Pierre Pronchery --=20 You are receiving this mail because: You are the assignee for the bug.=
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