On 03/07/2012 12:55 PM, David Vasek wrote:
On Wed, 7 Mar 2012, Amit Kulkarni wrote:
...
Use (W)hole disk or (E)dit the MBR? [edit]
while the OP did make a mistake, he could modify the default to be
edit the MBR. so he would be forced to pay attention while staring at
the partition table. i would be paying attention to the instructions.
stuart is right, there's a point where if you add confirmations, where
would you stop?
Not confirmations, but saner defaults. No default value here is another
option - it doesn't take from precious floppy size.
I never had a problem with the current installer, but I really do think
that is should not direct people to disasters. Yes, people should be
careful, but only one press of Enter is too close. Defaults should be sane.
Let me explain a little part of the OpenBSD dev cycle. Every six
months, developers do as many installs and upgrades of as many types on
as many systems as we can.
We do this to make sure everything works properly.
The ability to hit "ENTER ENTER ENTER ENTER" through the install and
have things load is WHAT THE DEVELOPERS WANT. We like to be able to
install and test quickly. Heck, we like being able to install and USE
quickly. Using an OS should not be about the installation process.
Serious OpenBSD users have the vast majority of our systems "whole disk"
configs. Multi-booting is for non-committed users: dabblers, resume
stuffers ("fluent [='I installed successfully!'] in 37 operating
sytems!") and people who have need for another OS for some reason on a
laptop. Hey, I have THREE laptops that multi-boot, but that's about 10%
of the OpenBSD machines I regularly use. A few machines have
maintenance partitions that need to be worked around. But for the most
part, serious users and developers want the default exactly as it is.
I think I am far closer to removing all info on multibooting systems
from the FAQ except for a statement of "Multibooting OpenBSD is not
supported" than you are likely to see any change to the "whole disk"
installation default.
Fortunately, I'm not too close to doing that. HOWEVER, if this bullshit
thread and nonsense suggestions go much further, I'd not be surprised to
see a note in my inbox saying "remove it. now". And I will.
Nick.
