On Sat, Dec 05, 2020 at 08:32:28PM +0000, Naheem Zaffar wrote:
> I think we need more than just better instructions here.
>
> If you use automatic partitioning, there is also a "leap of faith" step
> where you have to hope that the installer does the right thing, but without
> any way of verifying it.
>
> If you don't use automatic partitioning, it is because you already know
> enough to get past this stage.
Serious question since I don't dual boot -- can the automatic partitioning
handle the Windows 10 dual boot situation? Should I have just told the user
to use that?
I don't know because I have not done this in a long time. I had issues with needing to reclaim space a few years ago where I needed to do manual partitioning and since then as I know the manual process I have not had to risk taking the "leap of faith" that everything will be done correctly.
(This is ancient history, but I remember Fedora Core 2 destroying dual boot setups. After running into that and recovering from it eventually, I avoided Fedora until the next release, even though I had learnt how to now fix the dual boot issues.)
Trust but verify seems like a good idea where there is not only potential for dataloss, but we have new users who may have no prior experience of Linux.
I would use it if there was a verify step, but without that I dont know if Anaconda has chosen the right steps (though I remember having issues)
> In my opinion the most ideal scenario here would be a Windows based
> pre-installer - it runs the necessary checks that Fedora can be installed,
> sets up partitions and then reboot to finish installation.
Sounds interesting -- how would this help?
Chris and Neal have outlined options, but the biggest step would be one where the user (who potentially has never installed linux before) is no longer having to take a blind leap of faith. If the process is properly laid out, enough information can be provided through the process to comfort the user through the installation process.