From owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 1 13:31:47 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2DC3216A4CE for ; Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:31:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from zeus.acuson.com (ac17860.acuson.com [157.226.71.80]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19BB643D31 for ; Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:31:47 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from DavidJohnson@Siemens.com) Received: from mvaexch02.acuson.com ([157.226.230.209]:1607) by zeus.acuson.com with esmtp (Exim 4.14) id 1Axv0R-0006V9-3S; Mon, 01 Mar 2004 13:31:19 -0800 Received: by mvaexch02.acuson.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2657.72) id <15HGJT43>; Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:22:57 -0800 Received: from dhcp-46-107.acuson.com ([157.226.46.107]) by mvaexch01.acuson.com with SMTP (Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service Version 5.5.2657.72) id 15H19D34; Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:21:43 -0800 From: Johnson David To: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org, scott@sremick.net Organization: Siemens Medical Systems Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:29:25 -0800 User-Agent: KMail/1.6 References: <20040301210843.64256.qmail@web41109.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <20040301210843.64256.qmail@web41109.mail.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <200403011329.25897.DavidJohnson@Siemens.com> X-Scanner: exiscan for exim4 (http://duncanthrax.net/exiscan/) *1Axv0R-0006V9-3S*KktgYtcmQ7.* Subject: Re: my thoughts on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD Evangelism List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 01 Mar 2004 21:31:47 -0000 On Monday 01 March 2004 01:08 pm, Scott I. Remick wrote: > 3) Old cruft. Apparently a lot of people are too scared of the whole > ncurses/sysinstall beast to dare revamping it. It works, and it's > tried-and-tested. It's easier and safer to make minor modifications > to support new versions than to overhaul it. > > I wouldn't mind a GUI option, if there were enough people to maintain > it, but it'd need to only be an option (leaving the current ncurses > install or some other equivalently-easy text-based install for the > die-hards). And then you'd have to make sure there were people around > enough to support 2 separate install scripts (unless a text-based one > could be automatically generated from the GUI one somehow, using > templates). The sysinstall implementation started out as a quick-n-dirty hack, but unfortunately it lived on. I've been pondering the solution to this for a few months now. Frankly I don't see the absolute need for a GUI installer, but it's certainly a nice thing to have. But a text mode installer is essential. So the first step is to get a well designed text mode installer. The libh project (sysinstall replacement) is dead. I've have some ideas on this topic, but it's a bit more than I can do on my own. However, the only way stuff gets done in FreeBSD is for someone to get an itch and do it, so I'll probably end up doing something soon. David