Wes Peters wrote:
> > 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."
<snip good business story>
I'll have to say that if I've been arguing against other people on this,
I can't honestly argue against that logic. You're absolutely right that
a lot of people will abort from trying something new at the first sign
troubble. Thus the installer has to be super-simple and reliable and all
that other stuff.
I guess the thing that I'm worried about, which hasn't been explicitly
stated but I've inferred from the conversation, is that a new installer
will take on some characteristics of other installers that I despise.
These characteristics can be broadly classified as "The software thinks
it knows best, even when it doesn't have a clue, and will refuse to
allow you to fix its mistakes."
Having access to the crufty details gives me a lot of control and keeps
me from saying, "I don't know what's wrong and I don't know how to fix
it." I can never honestly say that with any open-source software, because
I can always dig around in the source until I find what's wrong.
So, on this topic, what I really WANT to say is: please don't make the
crufty details inaccessable while making the interface easier to use.
Along with that, I think I'm finally getting a handle on what really
needs done to sysinstall. It's been a painful process, wrought with
misunderstandings and confusion, but I think I'm finally getting what
the point is.
-Bill
--
If a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,
then what can I get for two hands in the bush?
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