From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 12 22:07:40 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 914FB106566B; Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:07:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan.naumov@gmail.com) Received: from an-out-0708.google.com (an-out-0708.google.com [209.85.132.251]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 320638FC12; Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:07:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dan.naumov@gmail.com) Received: by an-out-0708.google.com with SMTP id c3so1371308ana.13 for ; Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:07:40 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type :content-transfer-encoding; bh=HAgaEKiwXHZhrrRRRi3wOsNSz0/dxU7POy32k5ijtL8=; b=r/1obRRJJbOMyuCJbKm31UVFf9tvztUKEwcZYpLQo1pnUAbg5Fjze34k5g3WJtHgNf wvUWnuVGqbmsGwObdS1noQix7brlQGG54kXj7Z+jlL2zUZV3Dkh8xE8WuRVYRq+kch+S Rtaeiy7ZycMQq7+1jIfpmyI3YJ9y+xsrM9jBE= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type:content-transfer-encoding; b=LO3E7HFioSycDa9zRM1+YXc47spxdFvz2oIDf1BImjUchwcC4Cx7rjSeVN/hT3cVy+ s00WUcRjFqwL6CbT9SWqBWsZjorCXoA/QIXJuZQhkWCpRC9qFkpeNGvRFWDvWwqTaO6H fZslO/S9uKuVoVH6dfg8UYGek4Q5T8mHceK/8= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.101.66.15 with SMTP id t15mr5504656ank.194.1244844459901; Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:07:39 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <4A2E84DC.1010900@unsane.co.uk> Date: Sat, 13 Jun 2009 01:07:39 +0300 Message-ID: From: Dan Naumov To: Scott Ullrich Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailman-Approved-At: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:18:43 +0000 Cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, Vincent Hoffman Subject: Re: sysinstall, GJOURNAL and ZFS X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2009 22:07:41 -0000 As promised, I took a go at this new BSDInstaller, I wrote down some of my thoughts. Since I don't know if this is the kind of feedback you are looking for, here is just a part of it. As you can probably guess from it, I deal with usability issues in software applications a lot, hence my point of view, but obviously I can find my way around a UNIX without much issues. FreeBSD-20090608-1522-8.0-CURRENT image was used: ============================================= Initial BOOT: The boot goes as planned, but the user is dropped off to a login prompt. There is no direct indication for the user regarding how to proceed. Adding a note just before the login prompt saying something like "login as "root" with an empty password" would be nice. Again, as soon the user does log on, there is no indication as to how to launch the actual installer. This, as well as the previous problem could be solved by presenting the user with a simple menu screen, like this: Welcome to FreeBSD, choose your option: 1: Launch the FreeBSD installer 2: Drop to an emergency rescue shell This would eleminate the actual need to log in as well, we could just autologin as root for both options. Initial options in the actual installer: option: the names in a long list don't actually tell the user anything regarding how does any of the fonts look. Would it be possible to have a small sample preview next to each presented font option? option: again, the screen map options do not really explain the user what he should be choosing. A short description of every option is needed at the very least. option: ditto, same thing. Another approach to this altogether could be a serious of questions like: "What country do you live in? What language is your keyboard?" providing multiple options for an answer for each question. After a series of questions, the installer could just automatically pick up most sane defaults based on the answers given by the user and finally ask "Does the fonts on the screen look alright to you? Try typing in here, do the expect characters appear as they should?" and if the user is unsatisfied, he can be dropped to the kinds of a big selection list which is used by the installer right now.