On Mon, 2010-10-11 at 11:41 +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
I installed and played with Ubuntu 10.10 over the weekend (in a VM), and I have to say that their installer is very smooth indeed. It's starting to make anaconda look distinctly clunky.
Some of the things it does which are IMHO better:
starts disk formatting / copying / installing in parallel with asking user questions
downloads updates in parallel too
uses IP geolocation to guess the user's timezone and keyboard settings (it's been 100% correct for me each time)
suggests a username and hostname based on the user's real name (Mac OS X's installer also does this -- it's a nice touch)
This is in contrast to anaconda (certainly from the live CD install) which seems to be a usability no-go area.
Thoughts? Can we switch to their installer?
Rich.
Comparing the Ubuntu 10.04 DVD installer (which I use a couple of weeks ago) to Fedora 13 DVD installer is like comparing the Cessna to a Boeing 747. Sure, both can accomplish the same task. Read: transporting people from one airport to another, but lets see you try transporting 400 peoples from London to NY using a Cessna...
The same logic applies to the Ubuntu installer: As long as you require a fairly basic -desktop- configuration (Read: No fancy storage, no LVM, no fancy setup source [nfs, dvd, http], -very- basic encryption, standard software set and repository selection, etc), the Ubuntu installer is a great tool, but once you need something complex, you're screwed.
- Gilboa