Re: 3.6 Feature: Initial setup

[Jeremy Bicha <jbicha ubuntu com>]

On 21 April 2012 21:47, Matthias Clasen <matthias clasen gmail com> wrote:
> We haven't really gotten off the ground with 3.6 feature proposals
> yet, so I'll make a start by announcing something that I hope to
> complete for 3.6: A nice initial setup experience.
>
> I have created a feature page describing this here:
> http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointFive/Features/InitialSetup
>
> The design can be found here:
> https://live.gnome.org/GnomeOS/Design/Whiteboards/InitialSetup
>
> The idea here is that we should help a user who boots his newly
> installed GNOME for the first time with the setup tasks that are
> necessary to make the system usable. Traditionally, this has been
> distribution territory, with various tools like firstboot that run at
> some point in the boot phase before the login screen. We can do a
> nicer job by replacing the login screen on the first boot, and we can
> make the transition from the initial-setup tool to the user session
> seamless.
>
> The design currently has screens for
> - network
> - user account
> - location/timezone
> - online accounts
> The idea is that we want to ask as few things as possible while still
> ending up with a system that is ready to use. We don't want to ask for
> settings which have good defaults or can be autodetected.
>
> The initial-setup support in gdm will be entirely optional, so
> distributions can continue to use their own mechanisms if they prefer.

This proposal assumes that Fedora's install procedure of "ask some
questions, do the install, reboot, and ask more questions" is better
than the install method used by OpenSUSE and Ubuntu of "ask some
questions, do the install and reboot".

While the "ask questions after install" method is really convenient
for OEM installs, only a very small percentage of Linux installs are
done by OEMs. I think Fedora's install approach is more frustrating to
people that want to get using their computer as soon as possible.

If we ignore the OEM install use case, I think the remaining useful
pieces for a first-login experience would be allowing the user to
easily setup their online accounts and get an intro tour. These pieces
would be useful to any user's first login, not just the person that
installed the computer. In almost all cases, everyone using the same
computer would have the same location (i.e. time, language & keyboard)
 and basic network setup.

Jeremy Bicha