On Tue, 10 Aug 2004, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> What problems did she had with it exactly and how do you think it could
> be proved? (FWIW, there have been discussions about improving the UI of
> the partitioning tool before, so any input is appreciated).
I'm sure there have been .. The partitioning interface is a weak spot for
every installer I have ever seen (except when there isn't one, e.g.
Windows). I wouldn't claim to know how to do it right either. But,
since you asked.. :)
It might benefit from a clearer separation of action items ("Write changes
to disk") from informational items (list of partitions, which are active
choices too). In most of the installer, the input fields are in the
center and navigated with arrow keys, and the action buttons are across
the bottom and selected with the tab key, but this cue doesn't help on the
partitioner screen. The RAID and LVM options at the top are disorienting
to somebody that doesn't know what RAID or LVM are. Maybe these could be
moved to the bottom, where people seem to be more likely to ignore things
without getting unnecessarily anxious. I like the individual partition
editing dialog; I think this works better than trying to cram all the
information into one list like cfdisk, and it is probably as
understandable as it can be considering that it has to let you choose
filesystems etc. Note that I haven't ever used the "Erase entire hard
disk hda" option, which might be entirely satisfactory for beginners and
avoid the partition editor altogether.
Anyway I should say that I'm enormously grateful that somebody has gotten
together a decent installer. I work at a college and have a couple dozen
Linux newbies each year; up until now I have been telling them "use
Debian, but let me (ok, one of my students) install it for you." The
boot-floppies installer was ok for me but hopeless for somebody that's
just starting out.
Thanks..
M.D.
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