8:52 a.m.
Hello to all developers, testers and Fedora People,
I tested on GNOME Boxes the new Anaconda installer user interface, from
webui_latest_install ISO as in the Fedora Magazine article
instructions.
The installer interface is amazing: really polished, good-looking and
functional. Even though the previous interface was simple enough, this
one is even more welcoming, and I really enjoy the fact that now the
installation process is completely linear, one page after the other,
and there is no main page from which the user is expected to navigate
to other sections. I also love how the installation progress is
performed, which shows actual steps instead of a unique, long progress
bar. The new installer is really great!
Still, I have a few observations to make regarding the overall
experience. Please, don't take the following as criticisms, since I am
just a regular user which tried the new installer for the first time.
1. In the first page, Anaconda correctly identifies Italian as my
language, at least in GNOME Boxes. However, when reselecting the same
language again, the entire user interface completely reloads, leaving
the screen completely blank for a fraction of time. I would simply
expect the language to change without reloading the page, even with a
small, noticeable, delay.
2. Moreover, in the same page I would also add the usual 'test the
keyboard layout' box in which one can type its own accent characters,
such as those required to write in Italian, and similar glyphs.
3. In the second page, I see no options to specify custom disks and
partitions layout. In particular, I would like to see a page dedicated
to custom layouts, that can of course be skipped if an automatic
partitioning is specified, such as in the previous Anaconda.
4. Before installing, the previous Anaconda showed a list of the
partitions and disks that were going to be erased and created during
the installation. The new version only shows a warning that the
selected disks will be erased: it would be great if a 'show more'
button was available for advanced user to see what's going to happen.
The overall process was still buttery smooth, with the exception of the
'reboot' phase that hanged with a '[terminated]' message for an
unspecified amount of minutes.