From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed Jul 11 1:14:37 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from softweyr.com (softweyr.com [208.247.99.111]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3DFEC37B401 for ; Wed, 11 Jul 2001 01:14:33 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from localhost.softweyr.com ([127.0.0.1] helo=softweyr.com ident=b86cb317b704b3826038002f2fe01935) by softweyr.com with esmtp (Exim 3.16 #1) id 15KFEA-0000Pg-00; Wed, 11 Jul 2001 02:20:10 -0600 Message-ID: <3B4C0C3A.64E05112@softweyr.com> Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2001 02:20:10 -0600 From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr LLC X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.75 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.2.12 i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Bill Moran Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral References: <20010706144935.A61843@xor.obsecurity.org> <3B4650D0.97F10B83@bellatlantic.net> <20010707002340.B16071@widomaker.com> <20010707004731V.jkh@osd.bsdi.com> <3B49F8D5.2C9BFA73@mindspring.com> <3B4A0124.26025FB5@iowna.com> <3B4A1423.E8E365E@mindspring.com> <86ofqth6p3.fsf@hades.hell.gr> <3B4A7D9C.A64230D9@softweyr.com> <3B4B07DE.4801D208@iowna.com> <3B4B1B66.C011BF2B@softweyr.com> <3B4B32F3.7AC70D66@iowna.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Bill Moran wrote: > > Wes Peters wrote: > > > Allow > > the user to grab the ends of partitions we can manipulate and move them > > around, either through keyboard navigation or with a mouse. > > Hmmm ... we're really aiming at novice users here now, aren't we? I > suppose > that's not a bad thing, but I just never thought of going so far with > it. > > > Focus on the > > task we're attempting to accomplish: slicing the disk into 1 to 4 differnt > > logical parts, rather than on the crufty underlying details. > > Hmmm ... well, I was never upset with the "crufty details" ... I rather > like > to know what's going on under the hood all the time. Then again, that's > me. If you're targeting newbies and other less-educated (or less "I sure > would like to figure this out" inclined) people, then what you're > suggesting would probably be a good idea. Uh, yeah, by definition, we're targeting people who have never seen FreeBSD before -- that's what an installer is all about. This is a lesson I had pounded into me the hard way many years ago by Rob Clyde, who was at that time trying to get people to buy the software I was writing. The lesson: "If they can't install it, they'll never know how good it is." That lesson led to a rather graceless 30-day slip in a very important release, to give our 3-man team time to write a multi-architecture, across-the-network installation tool. It added zero value to the product itself, but made it so that independant auditors from the "Big 8" accounting firms could install our security monitoring package easily on every machine at a customer site, using a 30-day "walk around" license, run their audits, present the reports to their customer, and leave the software installed with a couple of weeks of license left. Within 6 months, half our sales were converted walk around licenses left by auditors. I'll close and bow out of this bikeshed by quoting Rob again: "If they can't install it, they'll never know how good it is." This is probably the only POSITIVE less Rob Clyde ever taught me, but it's a good one. -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message