Re: Installer UI advices

[M. Uli Kusterer]

At 13:29 Uhr +0800 12.03.2005, Sheldon Gill wrote:
> There are technical reasons for the file system layout and the 
> impositions. These are outside the scope of GNUstep and difficult to 
> fix. If you want to do it properly and reasonably, you need to 
> re-engineer the operating system and the applications which run on 
> it.

 Actually, you'd be surprised how comfigurable Linux is. A friend of 
mine is a security freak and he renamed *all* his OS-level folders. 
Renaming and moving is the same thing in Linux, so I'd guess it would 
even work to move them all into a "System" folder. Might need special 
installs for certain additional packages and changes to make some 
apps that make unhealthy assumptions, but it *can* be done without 
needing to re-engineer.

> Thats right. Thing is, the computer is a complicated device. If you 
> know nothing and sit down to try and use one it's not going to be 
> very easy and its probably not going to be a satisfying experience. 
> Would you let someone get behind the wheel of a car and just go? 
> Using a computer is actually a much more general task and so much 
> more complex. It'd be more like putting someone in a cockpit and 
> letting them try to fly.

 OTOH, I never learned how to use a choke anymore, and many people in 
the US and Switzerland can get their license without ever having to 
have learned to drive a manual transmission car. Driving and flying 
airplanes is getting easier every day. Why can't computing?

> The solution many have gone for is to present a *User* level view 
> which tries to hide and manage the underlying complexity. Its 
> certainly easier than trying to re-engineer the OS and the 
> incompatibilities that'd bring.

 But opens up its own can of worms. If we keep adding layers, we'll 
eventually need software-archaeologists...
--
Cheers,
M. Uli Kusterer
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