Re: 3.6 Feature: Initial setup

[Matthias Clasen <matthias clasen gmail com>]

On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 10:38 PM, Jeremy Bicha <jbicha ubuntu com> wrote:

> 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.

Sure, I agree that the online account and intro tour steps are useful
for every new user, not just the first. Beyond that, they are also
useful for an existing user who just upgraded his system from GNOME 2
and is not familiar with the new features of GNOME 3. I'm confident
that we can find a way to provide the same UI in these situations. The
main focus of the feature as it is written now, is certainly the
single-user machine - since that is a really common case (...not going
to make up numbers).

As for the 'installer philosophy', there's a number of reasons why it
is not a good idea (or even possible) to ask all system setup details
beforehand; the 'another person does the install' case is certainly an
important one - not just OEMs, but also corporate settings where you
get an installed system from your IT department. Jon listed a number
of other reasons in
https://live.gnome.org/GnomeOS/Design/Whiteboards/InitialSetup#installer

Matthias